Traction in thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of rough surfaces

This paper studies the traction behavior of elastohydrodynamically lubricated line contacts between two rough surfaces. The study uses a thermal micro-elastohydrodynamic-lubrication (micro-EHL) model and obtains traction coefficients for a wide range of operating conditions and for film parameters as small as 1.50. The simulation results suggest that the traction is generally insensitive to the roughness structure and magnitude as long as the contact maintains a full EHL film. The results also indicate clearly that the lubricant squeeze induced by the motion and interaction of rough surfaces significantly affects the numerical solutions to thermal micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication.