Lubrication theory

About: Lubrication theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1713 publications have been published within this topic receiving 50261 citations. The topic is also known as: Fluid bearing.

On thin film lubrication

Abstract: Various phenomena are revealed under EHL and micro-EHL conditions, such as the properties of the lubricant under high pressure, traction, and the load-bearing capacity of the lubricant film, and are discussed in the present paper. A new lubrication regime, thin film lubrication, has been discussed. The theoretical and practical significance of research on thin film lubrication is elaborated. Finally, the characteristics describing thin film lubrication and its main research directions are suggested.

Finite element analysis of elastic engine bearing lubrication: theory

Abstract: This paper reviews the theory of finite element mode-based elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis (as applied in a companion paper to the bearing and structural design of a dynamically loaded automotive connecting rod).

Contact in a viscous fluid. Part 2. A compressible fluid and an elastic solid

Abstract: A lubrication theory is presented for the effect of fluid compressibility and solid elasticity on the descent of a two-dimensional smooth object falling under gravity towards a plane wall through a viscous fluid. The final approach to contact, which takes infinite time in the absence of both effects, is determined by numerical and asymptotic methods. Compressibility can lead to contact in finite time either during inertially generated oscillations or if the viscosity decreases sufficiently quickly with increasing pressure. The approach to contact is invariably slowed by allowing the solids to deform elastically; specific results are presented for an underlying elastic wall modelled as a foundation, half-space, membrane or beam.

Flow factor of non‐continuum fluids in one‐dimensional contact

Abstract: Purpose – To develop a more realistic model for molecularly thin film hydrodynamic lubrication by incorporating the fluid inhomogeneity and discontinuity effects across the fluid film thickness in this lubrication.Design/methodology/approach – The total mass flow of the fluid through the contact in a basic one‐dimensional molecularly thin film hydrodynamic lubrication is studied by incorporating the fluid inhomogeneity and discontinuity effects across the fluid film thickness, based on a simplified momentum transfer model between neighboring fluid molecules across the fluid film thickness. This flow is calculated according to the present approach and the theory of viscous flow between two contact surfaces. The total mass flow of the fluid through the contact in this lubrication is also calculated from conventional hydrodynamic lubrication theory, which was based on continuum fluid assumption in the whole lubricated contact. The ratio of this flow calculated from the present approach to that calculated fro...

The solidification of buoyancy-driven flow in a flexible-walled channel. Part 2. Continual release

Abstract: The model developed in Part 1 (Lister 1994) for the solidification of hot fluid flowing in a thin buoyancy-driven layer between cold solid but freely deformable boundaries is extended to study the case of continual release of fluid. In this model lubrication theory was applied to reduce the equations of mass and heat conservation to a kinematic-wave equation and an advection-diffusion equation, which were coupled by the rate of solidification. The equations allow the source flux to be specified, and the cases of constant input and of flux proportional to a power of time are considered here. The structure of the flow differs significantly from the case of constant-volume release considered in Part 1. The advective resupply of heat prevents the flow from solidifying completely at the source and, if the initial fluid temperature is greater than the melting temperature of the solid, will in fact lead to rapid melting near the source. A perturbation expansion is used to describe the development of thermal boundary layers at the flow margins and the initial self-similar extension of the zone of melting. As the flow propagates beyond its thermal entry length, the fluid temperature falls to the liquidus value and melting gives way to solidification. At large times nearly all of the fluid supplied solidifies against the margins of the flow but, provided the source flux decreases less rapidly than t−½, sufficient reaches the nose of the flow that the flow continues to increase in length indefinitely. Analytic solutions are given for this long-time regime showing, for example, that the length increases asymptotically like t1/2 for constant-flux input. The theoretical solutions, which are calculated by a combination of analytic and numerical methods, may be used to describe the propagation of a dyke fed by a large body of magma through the Earth's lithosphere or the flow of lava down the flanks of a volcano during an extensive period of eruption.