A Comparison of the Roughness Regimes in Hydrodynamic Lubrication

Abstract

This work relates to previous studies concerning the asymptotic behavior of Stokes flow in a narrow gap between two surfaces in relative motion. It is assumed that one of the surfaces is rough, with small roughness wavelength μ, so that the film thickness h becomes rapidly oscillating. Depending on the limit of the ratio h/μ, denoted as λ, three different lubrication regimes exist: Reynolds roughness (λ = 0), Stokes roughness (0 < λ < ∞), and high-frequency roughness (λ = ∞). In each regime, the pressure field is governed by a generalized Reynolds equation, whose coefficients (so-called flow factors) depend on λ. To investigate the accuracy and applicability of the limit regimes, we compute the Stokes flow factors for various roughness patterns by varying the parameter λ. The results show that there are realistic surface textures for which the Reynolds roughness is not accurate and the Stokes roughness must be used instead.