The Application of Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Theory to Individual Asperity-Asperity Collisions

Abstract

Conventional elastohydrodynamic theory is modified and applied to the collision between two idealized surface asperities in an isothermal sliding system. Solutions for the pressure and film thickness between the asperities as functions of their overlap, the sliding speed, the pressure-viscosity coefficient of the lubricant, and the time since the initiation of the collision are obtained numerically for the first half of the collision process. It is shown that extremely high pressures and small film thicknesses are to be expected at the center of the contact region assuming the rheology of the lubricant film can be represented by that of the bulk lubricant.