"Starved Lubrication in Ehd Contacts": Mr. Sachin A. More

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STARVED LUBRICATION IN EHD CONTACTS

Mr. Sachin A. More B.E.. Mechanical Engineering, Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Sangamner, India. e-mail: samore.more@gmail.com / Contact No.08796210027

Abstract- A lubricated contact suffers from starvation when the lubricant does not fill the contact inlet adequately. Such a situation arises due to short lubricant supply or at extremely high speeds. The starvation effect is modeled by shifting the position of the inlet meniscus towards the contact zone. The degree of starvation, so obtained, is plotted as a function of the position of inlet meniscus under different operating conditions. Various degrees of starvation are obtained by shifting the inlet meniscus from its fully flooded position toward the Hertzian contact zone. In this work, the effect of starvation on the two most important parameters necessary for EHL performance evaluation which are coefficient of friction and central film thickness has been studied at different loads and rolling speeds. Key word: Elastohydrodynamic lubrication, Film thickness, Coefficient of friction, Starvation, line contacts.

the conditions under which EHL contacts have to operate reliably have become much moresevere due to, e.g., downsizing and increasing demands on efficiency of machinery. Higher loads and higher temperatures have led to smaller nominal film thickness levels and under these conditions the sensitivity of the contact performance to variations in the conditions is much larger. The prediction of film thickness and traction coefficient under realistic conditions has been the focus of attention for last five decades. The relevant literature includes several studies on thermal and non-Newtonian effects [1-2] on EHL characteristics. However, a commonly encountered practical problem attributed to inadequate filling of inlet conjunction generally referred to as starvation- has not received due consideration. Due to inadequate filling of the conjunction, the EHL film generated is much thinner as compared to the correspondingfully- flooded film and as a consequence, traction coefficient is also very high. 2.Theory[5]

1.

Intoduction

In the past decades the accurate prediction of the behavior of elastohydrodynamically lubricated EHL contacts has been thesubject of intensive theoretical and experimental research. The theoretical research generally involves numerical solution of the governing equations. Film thickness prediction formulas were presented by Dowson and Higginson for line contacts and for point contacts by Hamrock and Dowson . These formulas are still widely used today and the predicted behavior has been validated experimentally, e.g., using optical interferometry measurements on a ball on disk rig. Since then, the theoretical research has benefited enormously from the dramatically increased capacity of computers and, equally important, the development of fast, stable, and efficient numerical algorithms, e.g., s and referencestherein. At present it is feasible to accurately simulate contactbehavior under time-varying conditions such as varying speedand load, and surface features moving through the contact. Recent developments include extension of the models to _local_ mixedlubrication _4,5_. This increased capability to predict contact performance is also urgently needed as

Fluid bearings are bearings which support the bearing's loads solely on a thin layer of liquid or gas.They can be broadly classified as fluid dynamic bearings or hydrostatic bearings. Hydrostatic bearings are externally pressurized fluid bearings, where the fluid is usually oil, water or air, and the pressurization is done by a pump. Hydrodynamic bearings rely on the high speed of the journal self-pressurizing the fluid in a wedge between the faces.Fluid bearings are frequently used in high load, high speed or high precision applications where ordinary ball bearings have short life or high noise and vibration. They are also used increasingly to reduce cost. For example, hard disk drive motor fluid bearings are both quieter and cheaper than the ball bearings they replace. Hydrodynamic (HD) lubrication, also known as fluid film lubrication has essential elements: 1. 2. 3. A lubricant, which must be a viscous fluid. Hydrodynamic flow behavior of fluid between bearing and journal. The surfaces between which the fluid films move must be convergent.

3.1 Two Parallel Surfaces seperated by a lubricated film of constant film thickness: Fig.5

In hydrodynamic lubrication the fluid is assumed not to slip at the interface with the bearing surfaces i.e. the fluid in contact with the bearing surfaces moves at the same velocity as the surface. Over the thickness of the fluid there is a velocity gradient depending on the relative movement of the bearing surfaces. If the bearing surfaces are parallel (or concentric ) the action motion of the lubricant will not result in a pressure which could support any bearing load.

Fig.1 EHL bearing


Hydrodynamic (Full Film) Lubrication is obtained when two mating surfaces are completely separated by a cohesive film of lubricant.The thickness of the film thus exceeds the combined roughness of the surfaces. The coefficient of friction is lower than with boundary-layer lubrication. Hydrodynamic lubrication prevents wear in moving parts, and metal to metal contact is prevented.Hydrodynamic lubrication requires thin, converging fluid films. These fluids can be liquid or gas, so long as they exhibit viscosity. In computer components, like a hard disk, heads are supported by hydrodynamic lubrication in which the fluid film is the atmosphere.The scale of these films are on the order of micrometers. Their convergence creates pressures normal to the surfaces they contact, forcing them apart. 3 Types of bearings include: 4.Regimes of Lubrication[3] Self-acting: Film exists due to relative motion. Squeeze film: Film exists due to relative normal motion. Externally pressurized: Film exists due to external pressurization. Fig.4 A lubricant is a type of substance which can be brought into the contact of loaded rolling sliding bodies to control friction and wear. Most lubricants are some type of fluid (e.g. mineraland synthetic oils, etc.); however, there are some solid lubricants (e.g. gold, silver, polymers,etc.). Liquid lubricants can be brought into a converging contact due to rotation and pressuregeneration between the bodies; they can lower the temperature of interacting surfaces andremove contaminants. Liquid lubricants can be mixed with other chemicals to provide additional properties(i.e. corrosion resistance, surface active layers, etc.). Four different forms of lubrication can be identified for self pressure generating lubricated contacts: i) hydrodynamic, ii) elastohydrodynamic, iii) partial or mixed iv) boundary.

Fig.2Twoparallelplates

Fig.3 One plate is inclined

3.2 One of The Plate is inclied: Fig.3 the surfaces are at a slight angle the resulting lubrication fluid velocity gradients will be such that a pressure results from the wedging action of the bearing surfaces... Hydrodynamic lubrication depends upon this effect... Note; This principle is similar to the lift in water skiing / aqua planning.

Conceptually the bearings can be thought of as two major geometric classes: bearing-journal(Anti Friction), and plane-slider(Friction). The Reynolds equations can be used to derive the governing principles for the fluids. Note that when gases are used, their derivation is much more involved.The thin films can be thought to have pressure and viscous forces acting on them. Because there is a difference in velocity there will be a difference in the surface traction vectors. Because of mass conservation we can also assume an increase in pressure, making the body forces different. 3. Mechanism of Pressure Hydrodynamic Bearing:[4] development in

Where, Boundary Conditions Inlet boundary condition Outlet Boundary Condition

5.2 Film Thickness Equation : The film thickness, h, at any point in an EHL conjunction is Fig.4 Variation of coefficient of friction with different forms of lubrication. Hydrodynamic or full film lubrication is the condition when the load carrying surfaces areseparated by a relatively thick film of lubricant. This is a stable regime of lubrication and metalto metal contact does not occur during the steady state operation of the bearing. The lubricant pressure is self generated by the moving surfaces drawing the lubricant into the wedge formed bythe bounding surfaces at a high enough velocity to generate the pressure to completely separate the surfaces and support the applied load. 4.1 Elastohydrodynamic lubrication is the condition that occurs when a lubricant is introduced between surfaces that are in rolling contact, such as ball and rolling element bearings. In this lubrication regime, the load is sufficiently high enough for the surfaces to elastically deform during the hydrodynamic action. 4.2 Partial or mixed lubrication regime deals with the condition when the speed is low, the load is high or the temperature is sufficiently large to significantly reduce lubricant viscosity when any of these conditions occur, the tallest asperities of the bounding surfaces will protrude through the film and occasionally come in contact. 4.3 Boundary lubrication is the condition when the fluid films are negligible and there is considerable asperity contact. The physical and chemical properties of thin surface films are of significant importance while the properties of the bulk fluid lubricant are insignificant. Later in this chapter further description and modeling technique for EHL and mixed lubrication is presented. 5. Governing Equations :[2] 5.1 Reynolds Equation : The equation which governs the generation of pressure in lubrication films is known as Reynolds equation and it forms the foundation of hydrodynamic lubrication analysis. The classical Reynolds equation is given below in dimensionless form Where h0 is the offset film thickness, v contributes to the surface normal displacement and the method adopted for its calculation is discussed subsequently. The film thickness in non-dimensional form is given by

Where displacement

is

the

non-dimensional

surface

5.3 Density-Pressure Relationship : The present analysis uses Dowson and Higginson densitypressure relationship:

5.4 Viscosity-Pressure Relationship : The Roelands viscosity-pressure relationship is used in the present analysis:

5.5 Load Equilibrium Equation : The pressure developed in the lubricant supports the applied load. Therefore, the pressure distribution obtained from the Reynolds equation should satisfy the following condition.

where w is the applied load per unit width.


6. Test rig Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the test rig used. A rigid shaft is supported in two rolling element bearings and is driven at up to 1500 rpm by a variable speed electric motor. A test bearing is supported at one end of the shaft. The test bearing is made of transparent plastics to observe the behaviour of the oil film in the clearance. The nominal

diameter and the length are 45 and 30 mm, respectively. The mean radial clearance is 90 mm. The bearing has one oil groove. Its circumferential and axial length are 4 and 24 mm, respectively. Lubricant oil is supplied through a hole into the groove from outside at controlled flow rates. Static loads are applied to the bearing by means of dead weights. The behaviour of the oil film in the clearance can be observed and also recorded by means of a video-camera recording system. The displacement of the bearing relative to the shaft is measured by means of two gap sensors. Fig.

Fig. 1. Schematic of test rig. 3.1. Starved film model Preliminary experiments gave lots ofinformation on oil film behaviour in the bearing clearance. Fig. 2 shows a schematic model of lubricant flow on a developed lubricating plane of a full circular journal bearing with an oil groove at the position of the maximum clearance. Under starved conditions, lubricant flowing out of the groove cannot cover the full bearing width at the groove position, and the covered width increases gradually with the decrease in film thickness in the circumferential direction. With the aid of recirculating oil flow near both ends, the oil film can eventually cover the full bearing width, resulting in the flooded lubrication condition. Up to this point, the bearing is starved. The oil film ruptures somewhere downstream in the divergent clearance, and oil flow is divided into two streams near both ends. Between the position of the oil groove and this rupture point, axial oil leakage flow takes place due to pressure developed in the film. Compared with flooded lubrication, the hydrodynamic oil film becomes thinner and also covers less area of the lubricating plane, resulting in a higher journal eccentricity ratio under a constant load and shaft speed. Consequently the static and dynamic characteristics of the oil film change from those under flooded lubrication conditions. First of all, the oil film extent on the lubricating plane should be obtained, then oil film force can be calculated for the starved oil film.

Fig. 2. Oil film model. 7. Results And Discussion [4] 7.1 Effect of Load Fig.5 compares the variation of the degree of starvation ( ) with the position of inlet meniscus (Xin) for three different values of maximum Hertz pressure (pH=0.5, 1 and 2GPa) while the rolling velocity is kept constant at uo=0.1 m/s. The degree of starvation ( ) is defined as the fractional loss in the weighted mass flow rate:

Fig.7 Variation of the degree of starvation with the position of inlet meniscus different Hertzian pressures. As apparent from Fig. 1 Xin = -6 corresponds to = 0 and hence, fully flooded condition, whereas, Xin = -1 marks the beginning of the contact zone. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that increases gradually with an initial shift in the inlet meniscus towards the contact zone. As the inlet meniscus approaches closer to Xin = -1,

an abrupt increase of starvation is observed. However, this steep increase in the degree of starvation is noticed much later at pH=2 GPa than at pH =0.5 GPa. This is consistent with the well-known fact that the pressure distribution in an EHL contact approaches the Hertzian distribution at high loads, which implies that the pressure build-up starts quite close to the beginning of contact zone and hence, the inlet zone shrinks significantly. This observation is useful while selecting the inlet boundary for fully flooded condition at a given load.

Fig.10 Variation of the factor by which the coefficient of friction increases with the degree of starvation for different Hertzian pressures at uo=0.1 m/s, =20 GPa-1 and R=0.02 m As mentioned above, starvation causes an increase in the value of coefficient of friction (COF). This effect may be quantified in terms of the ratio of COF values obtained under starved and fully flooded conditions. The variation of this ratio with the degree of starvation is compared at pH=1 and 2 GPa with uo fixed at 0.1 m/s. It can be seen that coefficient of friction increases by factors exceeding 2, which is quite high. Also, it is apparent that at higher load, the maximum increase in COF is higher. The reason for this increase in coefficient of friction due to starvation can be understood by considering the factors on which it depends, i.e., contact zone viscosity and shear rate. The contact zone viscosity remains almost unaffected as it is observed that pressure does not undergo any noticeable change. The shear rate, however, increases due to the filmthinning caused by starvation. This increase in the shear rate results in higher shear stresses and hence, higher coefficient of friction. Fig. shows the variation of central film thickness with the degree of starvation at pH= 0.5, 1 and 2 GPa. The slope of the curve increases with decreasing load. Under fully flooded condition, = 0, the difference between the central film thickness values at the three loads is maximum. This gap decreases with increasing degree of starvation and the central film thickness tends to converge to a common value independent of the load.

Fig. Central film thickness Vs Degree of Starvation 7.2 Effect of Rolling Speed Since rolling speed is an important parameter affecting starvation, Fig. 6 compares the variation of the degree of starvation ( ) with the position of inlet meniscus (Xin) for three rolling speeds (uo=0.1, 1 and 10 m/s) while the maximum Hertz pressure is kept constant at pH=1GPa. It can be seen from Fig. 10 that the general trend of variation of degree of starvation with meniscus position is the same as described earlier with reference to Fig. , i.e., a gradual increase followed by a steep rise as the inlet meniscus is shifted towards the contact zone. Further, it is apparent that the degree of starvation for a particular position of inlet meniscus is larger at higher rolling speed. This observation is consistent with the practical experience which indicates more likelihood of starvation at higher speeds. This is due to the fact that a larger amount of lubricant is dragged within the conjunction at higher speeds resulting in thicker films, therefore, in the case of inadequate lubricant supply, high speed contacts are starved to a greater extent. Furthermore, at higher speeds, the fluid pressure starts building up farther away from the contact zone and hence, fully flooded condition is ensured by selecting a sufficiently large negative value of Xin while carrying out EHL simulations at high rolling speeds.

Fig. 14:Variation of central film thickness with the degree of starvation for different rolling speeds at pH=1 GPa, =20 GPa-1 and R=0.02 m

10.Conclusion [4]: The starvation effect is modeled by shifting the position of the inlet meniscus towards the contact zone. The degree of starvation, so obtained, is plotted as a function of the position of inlet meniscus under different operating conditions. The effect of starvation on coefficient of friction and central film thickness has been studied at different loads and rolling speeds. Some of the salient conclusions are outlined below: 1) Film-thinning is the most serious consequence of inadequate filing of the EHL conjunction as it may lead to film failure leading to metal-metal contact and hence, dincreased friction and wear. 2) Starvation causes an increase in the value of coefficient of friction (COF). This effect has been quantified in terms of the ratio of COF values obtained under starved and fully flooded conditions. 3) At higher load, the maximum increase in COF is higher. The reason for this increase in COF is the increased shear rates due to the film-thinning attributed to starvation. This increase in the shear rate results in higher shear stresses and hence, higher coefficient of friction. 4) Degree of starvation and the central film thickness tends to converge to a common value independent of the load. 5) Rolling speed is an important parameter affecting starvation. The degree of starvation for a particular position of inlet meniscus is found to be larger at higher rolling speed. This is in consonance with the practical experience of more frequent occurrence of starvation at higher speeds. This is due to the fact that larger amount of lubricant is required to produce thicker fluid films associated with high speed EHL contacts. 6) The film-thinning attributed to starvation is more pronounced at higher rolling speed as the inlet pressure sweeps a longer distance and attains a higher value at the entry to the contact zone. 7) As the degree of starvation increases, the central film thickness decreases with a slope which increases with increasing rolling speed.

11.References : [1] C. H. Venner,G. Popovici,P. M. Lugt,M. Organisciak, Film Thickness Modulations in Starved Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Contacts Induced by Time-Varying Lubricant Supply ASME, Vol. 130, october 2008. [2]www.google.com/sciencedirect.com/abstract [3]www.google.com/rigims of lubrication.pdf. [4] Rajesh Kumar1 , Punit Kumar2, Munish Gupta3, Sarvation Eeffects in Elasto-Hydrodynamically Lubricated Line Contacts International Journal of Advancements in Technology http://ijict.org/ ISSN 0976-4860. [5]P.M.LUGT,G.EMORALES-ESPEJEL,A Review of Elasto-Hydridynamic Lubrication Theory,STLE,Dec.2011.

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