Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Analysis of Point Contacts With Consideration of Material Inhomogeneity

Inhomogeneities in matrix may significantly affect the performance of mechanical elements, such as possible fatigue life reduction for rolling bearing due to stress concentration induced by inhomogeneities; on the other hand, most components operate under lubrication environment. So far the numerical algorithms to solve lubrication problems without the consideration of inhomogeneities or inclusions are well developed. In this paper, the combination of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) and inclusion problem is realized to consider the effect of material inhomogeneity on the lubrication performance and subsurface stress distribution, etc. The matrix inhomogeneity will induce disturbed displacement, which will modify the film thickness and consequently result in the change of lubricated contact pressure distribution, etc. The matrix inhomogeneity is treated as the homogeneous inclusion with equivalent eigenstrain according to equivalent inclusion method (EIM), and the disturbed displacement is calculated by semi-analytical method (SAM). While the pressure and film thickness distributions are obtained by solving Reynolds equation. The iterative process is realized to consider the interaction between lubrication behavior and material response. The results show the inhomogeneity in contacting body will greatly influence the lubricated contact performance. The influences are different between compliant and stiff inhomogeneity. It is also found that different sizes and positions of inhomogeneity can significantly affect the contact characteristic parameters.