Effects of the Lubricant Piezo-Viscous Properties on EHL Line and Point Contact Problems

This paper presents the application of the free-volume viscosity model in a Newtonian elastohydrodynamic line and point contact simulation using a more effective multigrid approach. According to recent experimental studies using high pressure viscometers, the free volume-based pressure–viscosity relationship closely represents the realistic piezo-viscous behavior for the high pressure typically encountered in elastohydrodynamic applications [1]. The effects of different pressure–viscosity relationships, including the exponential model, the Roelands model, and the free-volume model are investigated through an example with poly-alpha-olefin lubricant. It is found that the real pressure–viscosity behavior predicted by the free-volume model yields a higher viscosity at the low-pressure area, which results in a larger central film thickness. The fact that film thickness is formed mainly by the entraining action at the inlet area significantly weighs the importance of viscosity variation from different models in this area. The inlet area is a low-pressure area, and accordingly, the real viscosity of the lubricant predicted by Doolittle model undergoes a rapid increase in a convex function, being apparently larger than the Roelands one. Furthermore, the Doolittle model leads to higher pressure spike amplitude than that observed using the Roelands model. To solve the problem, a full multigrid approach has been used upon the assumptions of isothermal condition. Multigrid is more effective because it uses coarser grid levels to remove errors of different frequencies, which could be more quickly smoothed away than those on simply the fine grid alone. The developed coarse grid correction cycle proves to be an efficient tool to solve the EHL problem for a wide range of load conditions.