A Film Thickness Analysis for Line Contacts Under Pure Rolling Conditions With a Non-Newtonian Rheological Model

Abstract

The non-Newtonian constitutive equation proposed by Winer and Bair [1] is applied in a conventional isothermal film thickness analysis of line contact lubrication of rolling elements. The present analysis provides four different dimensionless film thickness equations for four different regimes of lubrication. Due to the formulation technique used in deriving the governing pressure-gradient equation, the present study is recommended for high viscosity, high rolling speed, and low limiting shear stress cases where Newtonian models fail to match the experimental data. Comparison of the present film thickness equations with the Newtonian correspondences in each lubrication regime shows a considerable difference, but the analysis suffers from the fact that the limiting shear stress parameters of these high viscosity lubricants need to be determined experimentally. The present analysis assumes a reasonable range of limiting shear stress which is smaller than the corresponding values for low viscosity lubricants which are predominantly Newtonian in behavior (unless severe rolling and/or sliding with high loads is applied).