The Calculation of Film Thicknesses in Soft, Highly Deformed Contacts under Dynamic Conditions

In soft, highly deformed contacts the entry and exit regions form only a very small fraction of the total contact zone. This paper examines the behaviour of the film thickness in the remaining central region under dynamic conditions. It is shown that the influence of the pressure variations caused by the changes in film thickness is minimal and that they may be neglected without substantial loss of accuracy. This greatly simplifies the calculation of film thicknesses in these contacts and speeds their computation.