Numerical Analysis of the Effect of Temperature on the Pressure and Film Thickness for Line Contact Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Using Bio-Based Oils as Lubricants

Abstract

This paper develops a numerical model to study the effect of lubricant’s temperature on generated pressure and film thickness formation for the line contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) using some bio-based oils as lubricants. In this study, a contact between inner ring and cylindrical roller of rolling element bearing is modelled as the line contact of EHL. The Reynolds equation is simultaneously solved with elastic deformation equation and pressure-viscosity equation. This aims to calculate the pressure distributions and film thickness profiles with a range of seven vegetable oils as bio-based lubricants at the various temperature. Moreover, the minimum film thickness is investigated in more detail to show the effect of the lubricant’s temperature. Obtained results show that palm oil has the highest of the minimum film thickness among other vegetable oils. However, all vegetable oils simulated in this study are suitable to replace mineral oil as lubricant for application of roller element bearing.