Numerical Simulation of the Overrolling of a Surface Feature in an EHL Line Contact

Abstract

In this paper a Multigrid extension of a stationary solver is outlined for the EHL solution of a line contact under transient conditions. The solver is applied to calculate pressure and film thickness profiles at each time step when an indentation is moving through the contact, which results in an asymmetric pressure profile. The time-dependent results are compared with the stationary solutions. The pressure as a function of time is presented as well as the integrated pressure (over time) as a function of the spatial coordinate. These time-dependent pressures are used to compute the sub-surface stress field, which shows higher stresses below the trailing edge of the indentation. Therefore the risk of fatigue is higher below the trailing edge of the indentation, as is experimentally observed. The transient pressures can be used for a fundamental study of the emitted frequency spectrum of rolling bearings, as used in condition monitoring.