A numerical study of lubricant film behaviour subject to periodic loading

This article aims at presenting a numerical study of the behaviour of fluid film subjected to a periodic squeeze action. Three numerical codes based on JFO theory have been developed and compared. The first code supposes the lubricant compressibility while the two other ones use the remplishment (filling up) notion. The equations from these two versions are discretized by the finite differences method and the finite elements method. The goal is to illustrate the lubricant film behaviour during an inversion phase of the applied dynamic load and rapid speeds change and determine the model and the numeric method able to predict all the hydrodynamic characteristics of a thin lubricant film subjected to periodic loading. The study demonstrates the finite element (FE) code efficiency and the limit of the finite difference (FD) code that supposes the film compressibility. It shows also the effects of the frequency and the average film thickness on the film load-carrying capacity and the rupture.

► We model the behaviour of lubricant film subjected to dynamic loading.
► We show the interest of using the Elrod model based on the filling up concept.
► The film rupture and reformation was considered and numerically visualised.
► We show the effectiveness of the FE formulation in analysis film rupture.