A Comparative Newtonian and Thermal EHL Analysis Using Physical Lubricant Properties

摘要

The influence of changes in specific heat and thermal conductivity of lubricants on the thermal EHL solutions of the line contact is examined in detail. Five Newtonian lubricants were considered; representative of mineral oils, polyalphaolefin and polyglycol. To account for the variations of temperature and physical properties across the film, the complete two dimensional energy equation was applied. The overall numerical strategy was integrated into a multigrid algorithm to accelerate the convergence of the solutions. The results reveal that temperature is significantly affected by the changes in thermal conductivity in the high pressure region of the contact. By contrast, the variations in specific heat with temperature and pressure are small and have seldom impact on the lubricated conditions of the contact and thus can be neglected.