Effects of Thermal Properties of Contact Materials and Slide-Roll Ratio in Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication

The effects of thermal conductivity, heat capacity, thermal inertia and slide-roll ratio on point elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) are discussed with engineering ceramics and steel by a non-Newtonian thermal EHL analysis. When the thermal conductivities of contacting materials are significantly different, the film thickness is greatly affected by which material has the higher velocity. However, the film thickness is dominated by the heat capacity when the difference in thermal conductivity is not large. In contact of materials with the same mechanical and thermal properties, the central film thickness and friction coefficient are influenced by the thermal inertia.

Oil Film Stiffness of Double Involute Gears Based on Thermal EHL Theory

Lubrication failure is one of the main failure forms of gear failure. Time varying meshing stiffness is an important factor affecting the dynamic behavior of gears. However, the influence of oil film stiffness is usually ignored in the research process. In this paper, according to the meshing characteristics of double involute gears, based on the non-Newtonian thermal EHL theory, a new calculation method of normal and tangential oil film stiffness for double involute gears is established by the idea of subsection method. The oil film stiffness difference between double involute gears and common involute gears is analyzed, and the influence of tooth waist order parameters, working conditions, and thermal effect on the oil film stiffness are studied. The results reveal that there are some differences between normal and tangential oil film stiffness between double involute gears and common involute gears, but there is little difference. Compared with the torque, rotation speed and initial viscosity of the lubricating oil, the tooth waist order parameters have less influence on the oil film stiffness. Thermal effect has a certain influence on normal and tangential oil film stiffness, which indicates that the influence of thermal effect on the oil film can not be ignored. This research proposes a calculation method of normal and tangential oil film stiffness suitable for double involute gears, which provides a theoretical basis for improving the stability of the transmission.

The Load Distribution with Modification and Misalignment and Thermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Simulation of Helical Gears

A non-uniform model of the load per unit of length distribution of helical gear with modification and misalignment was proposed based on the meshing stiffness, transmission error, and load-balanced equation. The distribution of unit-lineload, transmission error (TE), and contact press of any point on the contact plane were calculated by the numerical method. The feature coordinate system was put forward to implement the helical preliminary design and strength rating.The thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model of helical gear was established, and the pressure, film, and temperature fields were obtained from the thermal EHL model.The maximum contact temperature and minimum film thickness solved by thermal EHL were applied to check the scuffing load capacity. The highest flash temperature and thinnest film occur in the dedendum of the pinion. The thermal EHL method to evaluate the scuffing load capacity is effective.

On Waviness and Two-Sided Surface Features in Thermal Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Line Contacts

Machine components are designed to endure increasingly severe operating conditions due to the strive for improved energy efficiency of mechanical systems. Consequently, lubricated non-conformal contacts must rely on thin lubricant films where the influence of surface topography on the lubricating conditions becomes significant. Due to the complexity of the multiphysical problem, approximate assumptions are often employed to facilitate numerical studies of elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHL) contacts. In this work, the rough, time dependent, thermal EHL problem is solved with focus on two main analyses. The first analysis focuses on the influence of sinusoidal roughness and the difference between a thermal non-Newtonian approach and an isothermal Newtonian approach. The second analysis is focused on the lubricating mechanisms taking place when two-sided surface features overtake within the thermal EHL contact. The results indicate that the film thickness in the outlet of the contact may be significantly overestimated by an isothermal Newtonian approach and that differences in the high-pressure region may also occur due to viscosity variations in the inlet of the contact. Moreover, for the studied two-sided surface features, it became evident that not only the surface feature combination but also the overtaking position influence the film thickness and pressure variations significantly.

A thermal EHL investigation for size effect of finite line contact on bush-pin hinge pairs in industrial chains

Purpose This paper aims to study the influence of the dimension change of bush-pin on the pressure, oil film thickness, temperature rise and traction coefficient in contact zone by using a thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model for finite line contact. Concretely, the effects of the equivalent curvature radius of the bush and the pin, and the length of the bush are investigated. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the contact between the bush and pin is simplified as finite line contact. The lubrication state is studied by numerical simulation using steady-state line contact thermal EHL. A constitutive equation Ree–Eyring fluid is used in the calculations. Findings It is found that by selecting an optimal equivalent radius of curvature and prolonging the bush length can improve the lubrication state effectively. Originality/value Under specific working conditions, there exists an optimal equivalent radius to maximize the minimum oil film thickness in the contact zone. The increase of generatrix length will weaken the stress concentration effect in the rounded corner area at both ends of the bush, which can improve the wear resistance of chain. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-10-2019-0448.

Effect of angular speed of cam on oil film variation in the line contact thermal EHL of a cam-tappet pair

Purpose The influence of the cam angular speed on the pressure, film thickness and temperature profiles at some selected angular positions together with the oil characteristics are investigated. Design/methodology/approach A high-order polynomial cam is used, and thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) calculations are carried out by the multi-grid method and line-line scanning technique. Findings It is found that the film thickness decreases with a decrease in angular speed. The depth of the dimple that occurred in the reverse motion is also reduced because of the recession in the “temperature–viscosity wedge” effect. Originality/value It is revealed that the reduction in the cam angular speed makes the classical big surface dimple evolve into a small centralized dimple during the opposite sliding motion. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2019-0327