Thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of starved elliptical contacts

For the starved thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication in elliptical contacts, a numerical solver based on the multi-grid technique was developed and numerical solutions were achieved. The influences of the thickness of oil-supply layer, elliptical ratio, entrainment velocity, slide-roll ratio, and the maximum Hertzian pressure on the lubrication behaviour were investigated. The thermal solutions were compared with isothermal solutions. The numerical results show that, for an oil-starved contact, the central and minimum film thicknesses predicted by both thermal and isothermal solutions change at the same trend as the thickness of the oil-supply layer increases. That is, as the thickness of the oil-supply layer increases, in the beginning both the central and minimum film thicknesses increase rapidly, however, their increasing rates become smaller gradually, at last, when the thickness of the oil-supply layer reaches a certain value, both the central and minimum film thicknesses almost stop increasing. Such situation was called a quasi-fully flooded state in this study. It has been found that the amount of the supplied oil for the quasi-fully flooded state differs with the elliptical ratio, and the maximum amount of the supplied oil is required by a circular contact.