Transient EHD lubrication of concentrated line contacts. Part 1. Steady-state and pure squeeze cases

This is the first part of a two parts paper on transient EHD lubrication of heavily loaded concentrated line contacts. The paper suggests a set of dimensionless groups reflecting the influence of (1) load, (2) hydrodynamic action, and (3) periodicity of the duty cycle on film thickness and pressure. Local squeeze effects are retained in Reynolds' equation. Further model details are as usual for classic steady-state EHD lubrication. The Reynolds equation is linearised by evaluating the nonlinear terms at a previous time step. All equations are expressed in unknown pressures. The Finite Difference Method was employed to solve the resulting set of equations. Since squeeze action is included, steady-state and normal approach can be considered as special solutions to the general case. In this first part the numeric code is tested against previously published results. Excellent agreement in the film thickness was found for the stationary case. A quantitative comparison for the normal approach case is problematic, due to model differences. Qualitative agreement is good