Oil film stiffness and damping in an elastohydrodynamic lubrication line contact-vibration

An elastohydrodynamic lubrication line contact-vibration model is proposed to study the stiffness and damping of the oil film existed in the EHL contact region. An initial mutual approach between interacting surfaces, which deviates from the steady-state balanced position, is assumed under the free contact-vibration to predict the response of the mutual approach. An inertia term, which represents the acceleration of the gap motion, is added to the classical force balance equation to form the equation of motion of the mutual approach. Response of the mutual approach is solved based upon the solving of the contact-dynamic model. The oil stiffness is calculated according to the natural frequency of the response under damped and non-damped conditions, the latter of which represents dry contact conditions. The oil film damping is calculated in terms of the principle of the energy conservation which utilizes the whole history of response compared with the log decrement method. Effect of the normal load, the rolling speed and the amplitude of the regular sinusoidal surface waviness on the oil film stiffness, the contact stiffness and the oil film damping are studied. The study provides an insight on the oil film dynamic characteristics of lubricated contact-vibration problems which appear in gears, bearings, etc. The results show that the oil film damping factor decreases with the increasing normal load as well as the increasing rolling speed. The oil film stiffness increases with the normal load and decreases with the rolling speed. Also, compared to the contact stiffness, the oil film stiffness makes less contribution to the total stiffness. The surface waviness amplitude has little effect on the oil film stiffness and the oil film damping.