Thermohydrodynamic Analysis of Surface Roughness in the Flow Field

Abstract

The study deals with the development of a thermohydrodynamic (THD) computational procedure for evaluating the pressure, temperature, and velocity distributions in fluid films with a very rough geometry. A parametric investigation is performed to predict the bearing behaviors in the lubricating film with the absorbed layers and their interfaces as determined by rough surfaces with Gaussian distribution. The layers are expressed as functions of the standard deviations of each surface to characterize flow patterns between both rough surfaces. Velocity variations and heat generation are assumed to occur in the central (shear) zone with the same bearing length and width. The coupled effect of the surface roughness and shear zone dependency on the hydrodynamic pressure and temperature has been found in the noncontact mode. The procedure confirms the numerically determined relationship between the pressure and film gap, provided that its roughness magnitude is smaller than the fluid film thickness.