Investigation into the viscoelastic behaviour of a thin lubricant layer in an EHL contact

Inside a loaded EHL contact, even for low viscous lubricants, the pressure flow is virtually absent. Based on this knowledge, this paper explores to what extent EHL contact behaviour can be modeled using a simpler model in which the flow equation is replaced by an oedometric viscoelastic layer equation. Results for fully flooded- and mixed-lubricated conditions under pure rolling and squeeze conditions are presented and compared with results obtained with a standard Reynolds-based EHL-model. Although there are still discrepancies, the proposed model is shown to be able to predict characteristic behaviour of an EHL contact under fully-flooded and mixed-lubricated conditions remarkably well. This encourages further investigation.