A Study on Flow Phenomena in Mixed Lubrication Regime by Porous Medium Model

Abstract

A porous medium model is basically a macroscopic description of the fluid behavior and is considered more appropriate to the mixed lubrication regime. The present work has successfully combined the flow factor method, porous medium model and continuum percolation theory to investigate the flow phenomena in the mixed lubrication regime. Not only the lubricant flow can be solved but also the anisotropic percolation threshold can be obtained. Instead of the flow factor which is singular near h = 0, the lubricant flux itself is considered. A new definition of the pressure flow factor which is more appropriate to the mixed lubrication realm is suggested.