Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178

www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

Numerical analysis of TEHL line contact problem

under reciprocating motion
J. Wang a,
, M. Kaneta a, P. Yang b
a
Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 1-1, Sensuicho, Tobata, Kitakyushu 804-8550, Japan
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qingdao Institute of Architecture and Engineering, Qingdao 266033, PR China

Received 11 November 2003; received in revised form 26 July 2004; accepted 28 July 2004

Abstract

This paper presents a full numerical analysis to simulate the thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) of steelsteel line
contact problem under reciprocating motion. The equation system is solved using multigrid techniques. General tribological beha-
viors of TEHL under reciprocating motion are explained. Comparison between thermal and isothermal results reveals the impor-
tance of thermal eect in prediction of the traction coecient and lm thickness. The inuences of frequency, stroke length, and
applied load on the variations of lm thickness, pressure and traction coecient during one working cycle are discussed. Further-
more, the inuence of slideroll ratio on tribo-characteristics of oil lm under same entraining velocity is revealed.
# 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Elastohydrodynamic; Line contact; Reciprocating motion; Numerical analysis

1. Introduction investigated numerically the eect of waviness orien-

Over more than the past 50 years, the theory of
steady-state isothermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication
(EHL) has been fully developed. Steady-state con-
ditions mean that the key operating parameters of
load, velocity, and contact geometry are constant over
time. However, in many practical systems, such as cam
and followers, rolling elements bearings, and gears,
these parameters change rapidly, producing transient
EHL conditions. And in many cases, temperature rise
across oil lm is often high if the operating velocity is
high or applied load is heavy. Over the years, the
developments in experimental technologies, computer
technologies, and numerical methods have made it
possible to investigate such situations both experimen-
tally and theoretically. Therefore, in recent years,
researchers attentions have begun to focus on the
behaviors of transient EHL systems. Yang and Wen
[1,2] took into account the inertia forces in the iso-
thermal analysis of squeeze motion. Ehret et al. [3]

obtained complete numerical solutions for a time-
Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-093-884-3164; fax: +81-093-861-
1809.
E-mail address: c584104j@tobata.isc.kyutech.ac.jp (J. Wang).
0301-679X/$ - see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2004.07.025
tation in EHL point contacts under high load situ-
ation. Wijnant and Venner [4] explored the inuence of
the lubricant on the vibration of one rolling element in
the numerical analysis of an EHL circular contact,
accounting for both squeeze and entraining motion as
well as inertia eects. Glovnea and Spikes [5] simulated
camfollower kinematic cycles to a partial extent in a
model ball-on-disc optical interferometric test appar-
atus and found out that the central lm thickness
departed consistently from the predicted steady-state
value at some points. Glovnea and Spikes [6,7] also
studies the behavior of EHL contacts subjected to
rapid halting using ultrathin interferometry technique
and compared the experimental results with theoretical
simulations. Cui and Yang [8] assumed that each solid
surface had a bump in a steelsteel EHL contact under
slideroll condition and simulated the process in which
the two bumps entered and left the contact gradually.
Thermal and non-Newtonian eects were also con-
sidered in their mathematical model. Jin et al. [9]
dependent, thermal and non-Newtonian EHL line
contact problem subjected to vertical vibration and
166 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178

Nomenclature

b half-width of Hertzian contact zone at load wload, m

c, ca,cb specic heat of lubricant and solids, J/kg K
E0 eective Youngs modulus, Pa
f frequency, Hz
H dimensionless lm thickness for results h=R  105


h dimensionless lm thickness for calculation, hR=b2
h lm thickness, m
k, ka, kb thermal conductivity of lubricant and solids, W/m K
L stroke length, mm
p hydrodynamic pressure, Pa
pH maximum Hertzian pressure at load wload, Pa
t time, s
T period, 1=f , s
T
dimensionless temperature
T0 ambient temperature, K
T_ temperature, K
Ua,b dimensionless velocity of two surfaces, g0 ua;b =E 0 R
ua,b velocity of two surfaces, m/s
u x-component of lubricant velocity, m/s
umax dimensionless entraining velocity at stroke center, Uac Ubc =2
Uac,bc dimensionless velocity of two surfaces at stroke center, g0 uac;bc =E 0 R
Uac,bc velocity of two surfaces at stroke center, m/s
w z-component of lubricant velocity, m/s
wload applied load per unit length, N/m
x horizontal coordinate, m
Xin, Xout dimensionless start and end of lm
xin, xout start and end of lm, m
z, za, zb vertical coordinates of lm and solids, m
a Barus viscositypressure coecient, m2/N
g viscosity of lubricant, Pa s
g
equivalent viscosity
x angular velocity, 2pf
q, qa, qb densities of lubricant and solids, kg/m3
q0 ambient density of lubricant, kg/m3
s shear stress
R slideroll ratio, 2ua  ub =ua ub

Yang et al. [10] presented a complete numerical analy-
sis for a transient, thermal EHL line contact problem
with a longitudinal vibration. Popovici et al. [11]
studied the eects of the loading system on the
contact dynamics of an EHL contact during start up
numerically.
A few researchers have paid their attentions to EHL
of components undergoing reciprocating motion.
Petrousevitch et al. [12] investigated oil lm thickness
in a reversible ball sliding on a plane theoretically and
experimentally. Hooke [13] has analyzed lm thickness
during reversal of entrainment in EHL contacts and
has derived lm thickness formulae in terms of dimen-
sionless groups. Sugimura et al. [14] carried out a study
of EHL lm thickness under reciprocating motion
using the ultrathin lm interferometry technique and
compared the measured lm thickness with Hookes
theory. Nishikawa et al. [15,16] investigated the eect
of reciprocating motion under constant load and cycli-
cally applied load on traction and lm thickness.
Kaneta and Nishikawa [17] presented the eects of a
transversely oriented bump on point contact EHL lms
in reciprocating motion with a short length of stroke.
Rutlin et al. [18] studied the EHL lm behaviors under
reciprocating motion of constant velocity joints using
the chromatic optical interferometry. They compared
the experimental results with the predictions of steady-
state theory and revealed that there is a big dierence
between them. Izumi et al. [19] studied the oil-lm for-
mation in reciprocating pure rolling point EHL contact
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 167

through observations by means of an optical interfer-

ometry and a numerical analysis. They considered the
inuence of oil cavitations on the oil lm thickness.
However, the theoretical exploration of EHL problems
under reciprocating motion seems to lag behind the
experimental work, because those numerical works
were related to isothermal working conditions. The aim
of this study is to reveal the thermal elastohy-
drodynamic lubrication (TEHL) of two rollers oscillat-
ing around their shafts through fully numerical
calculations. There are many machines working under
pure rolling, or slidingrolling or pure sliding recipro-
cating motion. For example, the rolling element bear-
ing works under pure rolling condition when working
frequency is low. But if the working frequency becomes
higher, sliding velocity will occur. In automotives, the
one way clutch in electric generator moves with very
high sliding speed and small rolling speed, so the slide
roll ratio is nearly 2. In this paper, however, the tribo-
characteristics are mainly discussed using the results
obtained under condition where the slideroll ratio
equals to 1.0, though the results of slideroll ratios 0,
1.0, and 2.0 are compared.

1.1. Governing equations Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of two contact rollers.

Two innitely long steel rollers in slideroll motion

where
are shown in Fig. 1. The reciprocating motion is given
by oscillating the two rollers sinusoidally about their
shafts oa and ob. The oscillating angles of the two roll- q=ge 12ge q0e =g0e  q00e ; ~a 2qe  q0e ge ;
q
ers are ha and hb, respectively. The equivalent radius of ~b 2q0e ge
q
curvature is dened as h h z
1 1 1 qe 1=h q dz; q0e 1=h q 1=g
dz0 dz;
2
1 0 0 0
R Ra Rb h z
The velocities of the two surfaces are q00e 1=h3 q z0 =g
dz0 dz

0 0
ua Lxsinxt=2 h h
2

ub Ds Lxsinxt=6 ge h= 1=g
dz; g0e h2 z=g
dz

0 0
where Ds is a switch which changes according to slide
roll ratio In the above expressions, g
is an equivalent viscosity
8 for the ReeEyring ow model used in the analysis.
< 3:0R 0 The boundary conditions for Eq. (4) are:
Ds 1:0R 1:0 3
:

0R 2:0
pxin ;t 0; pxout ;t 0
5
For such a TEHL line contact problem, a general- p 0 xin < x < xout
ized Reynolds equation proposed by Yang and Wen
[20] is adopted Film thickness equation reads:
  
@ q @p qa h
@~ qb h
@~ @qe h x2 2 xout
h3 6ua 6ub 12 hx;t h00 t  px0 ;tlnx  x0 2 dx0
@x g e @x @x @x @t 2R pE 0 xin
4 6
168 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178

The applied load is kept constant, so the force characteristic shear stress of the ReeEyring uid, which
balance equation is given by is taken as 10 MPa in this paper.
xout The energy equation of oil lm for such a transient
px;tdx wload 7 problem can be expressed as
xin  _ 
@T @ T_ @ T_ @ 2 T_
The densitypressuretemperature relationship reads: cq u q k 2
  @t @x @z @z
C1 p    2
q q0 1 _
 C3 T  T0 8 T_ @q @p @p
@u
1 C2 p  u g 15
q @ T_ @t @x @z
where C 1 0:6  109 Pa1 , C 2 1:7  109 Pa1 , z z
where q @=@t 0 q dz @=@x 0 qu dz. The boundary
C 3 0:00073 K1 . condition of Eq. (15) is T_ xin ;z;t T0 if uxin ;z;t > 0.
An improved Roelands viscositypressuretempera- For pure sliding working condition, the heat conduc-
ture relationship suggested by Larsson et al. [21] is tion in the static solid in x-direction is as important as
employed. The expressions [22] are stated as: that in z-direction so that it cannot be neglected. The
n
energy equations for the two solids are
gp;T_ g0 T_ exp lng0 T_ 9:67 !
h io  _ 
_ @T @ T_ @ 2 T_ @ 2 T_
 1 1 5:1  109 pz0 T 9 ca;b qa;b ua;b ka;b Dy 2 16
@t @x @z2a;b @x

g0 T_ q0 T_ v0 T_  106 For pure sliding working condition, the parameter Dy

z0 T_ aT_ =5:1  109 lng0 T_ 9:67 is 1. Otherwise it is 0.
q0 T_ q00 1  0:00073T_  T0  On the two oilsolid interfaces, the heat ux conti-
q00 0:879 288  T0  0:00064  103 nuity conditions must be satised. These conditions
v0 T_ exp4:90071  108 =T_ 3:17247  0:6 can be given by
aT_  2:619 3:6434  lnv0 T_   109    
@ T_  @ T_  @ T_  @ T_ 
k k ; k k 17
@z z0 @za za 0 @z zh @zb zb 0
a b
In above expressions, g0 T_ is the viscosity of the oil
when p 0; Z0 T_ is the dimensionless Roelands
exponent under arbitrary temperature. Constant g00
and q00 are the apparent viscosity and density of the 2. Numerical techniques
lubricant at p 0, T_ T0 , respectively.
Before the numerical calculation is carried out,
The constitutive equation of the ReeEyring model is
  Eqs. (4)(17) are transformed into dimensionless forms.
@u s0 s Dimensionless quantities are dened as
sinh 10
@z g s0
h hR=b2 ;
P p=pH ; X x=b; Z z=h;
For this model, the viscosity in Eq. (9) is taken as an Za;b za;b =b; Ua;b g0 ua;b =E 0 R; U0 g0 u0 =E 0 R;
apparent viscosity, and the equivalent viscosity used in
Wload Wload =E 0 R; T

T_ =T0 ;
t tu0 =b
Eq. (4) can be dened as
Here, U0 is a reference parameter introduced to facili-
g
gs=s0 =sinhs=s0 11
tate the analysis, whose value has no real eect on the
which is determined using a shear stress analysis [20] solution. Another dimensionless lm thickness H
dened as H h=R  105 is also employed.
@p The Reynolds, lm thickness, and load equations are
s sa z 12
@x simultaneously solved using a multilevel technique. It
q
essentially follows the method developed by Venner [23]
ua  ub 2 F12  F22  ua  ub
sa s0 13 with modications of discarding the FAS right-hand
F1 F2 side of the lm thickness equation, and adopting the
and GaussSeidel relaxation instead of the Jacobi dipole
relaxation technique [24] together with considering the
h  
s0 z @p thermal and non-Newtonian factors. Six grid levels are
F1 cosh  dz used for pressure calculation with 961 equal-distance
g s @x
0h  0  14 nodes on the nest grid level. The temperature is calcu-
s0 z @p
F2 sinh  dz lated with a line-by-line sweeping scheme [25]. The tem-
0 g s0 @x
perature computation is carried out on the
where sa is the shear stress on surface a, and s0 is the nest grid level with 11 equal-distance nodes in Z-direc-
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 169

tion across the lm, and six nonequal-distance nodes in where superscripts pre and now represent the
Za and Zb directions within solids a and b, respectively. 120th time instant (at a stroke end) in previous and
One working cycle, consisting of two strokes, is div- present working cycle. The calculation is nished when
ided into 240 time instants. The instantaneous conver- the criteria are reached and six cycles are nished.
gence criteria on the nest grid level for pressure, load,
and temperature are 1  103 , 1  103 , and 1  104 ,
respectively. The periodic convergent criteria are: 3. Results and discussions
,
X now  X
pre  now The oil used is a mineral bright stock (BS). Input
Pi  Pi  Pi < 1  103 18 parameters of the oil are: g0 0:927 Pa s, a 2:389
i i
 , 108 m2 =N, q0 875:48 kg=m3 , c 2000 J=kg K, k
 X now X pre  X now
 0:14 W=m K; for the two solids qa;b 7850 kg=m3 ,
DX Pi  DX Pi  DX Pi
 i i
 i ca;b 470 J=kg K, ka;b 46 W=m K. Other common
< 1  103 19 input data include: E 0 227  109 , Xout Xin 4:5,
,
XX now  XX T0 313 K, R 0:0127 m, U 0 1  1011 .


T
pre 
T
now < 1  104 20
T Fig. 2 shows series of the lm thickness and pressure
i;j i;j i;j
i j i j proles in a stroke under conditions pH 0:8 GPa,

Fig. 2. Film thickness and pressure proles during a stroke. L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa.
170 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178

L 2 mm (L=b 11:17), f 48 Hz. The solid lines are
transient results and the dashed curves shown in
Figs. 2(bk) correspond to steady-state results. There is
a signicant discrepancy between steady-state and tran-
sient results. For steady-state results, at both stroke
ends, the oil lm is zero. The steady-state lm thickness
simply increases with the increase of entraining velocity
so that it is the thickest and also the pressure spike
is highest in Fig. 2(g) in which the entraining velocity is
the largest. However, for the transient state, the oil is
entrapped between contacting surfaces at both stroke
ends and consequently, the rippled oil lm is observed
before stroke center. The rippled oil lm passes
through the EHL conjunction approximately at the
entraining velocity. During a stroke, the change of oil
lm is controlled by both wedge and squeeze eects. At
the stroke end, since the velocities of two surfaces are
zero, the squeeze eect is predominant. The oil lm
entrapped at the left-hand of the conjunction is thicker
than that at the right-hand, while the pressure has the
spike on the left-hand side, as seen in Fig. 2(a). Then
the velocities of the two surfaces increase so that the
wedge eect enhances. As a result, the entrapped oil
lm and the corresponding pressure peak moves
towards the outlet region. Furthermore, with the
enhancement of the wedge eect, a dynamic pressure is
established just before the original pressure peak mean-
while a wedge-shaped oil lm is formed before the
entrapped lm (Figs. 2(c,d)). When the entrapped lm
disappears, the lm thickness shows a wedge shape and
the pressure peak newly established becomes lower
with an ambiguous spike (Fig. 2(e)). Then the pressure

Fig. 3. Temperature rise proles on two surfaces and middle oil layer during a stroke. L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa.
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 171

Fig. 4. Temperature distributions across the oil lm. L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa. (a) Stroke center, (b) stroke end.

spike begins to go up slowly again and lm thickness is
also thickened (Figs. 2(f,g)) with the increase of the
entraining velocity. In Fig. 2(b), the steady-state lm is
much smaller than the transient one but it overtakes
the transient lm quickly (Figs. 2(c,d)). In Figs. 2(df),
the steady-state lm is much thicker than the transient
one. At stroke center (Fig. 2(g)), the entraining velocity
attains its climax. However, the transient lm thickness
is still much smaller than its corresponding steady-state
result. After that, the transient pressure spike and lm
thickness continue increasing and are nearly the same
as the steady-state solution (Fig. 2(h)). This is because
the stroke length is short in current case; L 2 mm
while the Hertz contact width d 0:358 mm. That is,
during one stroke, the rippled lm takes about the ear-
lier 1/3 strokes time to pass through the conjunction
and then the lm also has to spend a number of time
instants in overcoming the inuence of the transient
eect produced by rippled lm. Therefore, the lm
thickness does not attain to the steady-state lm thick-

Fig. 5. Velocity distributions. L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa. (a) Stroke center, (b) stroke end, (c) mid-plane velocity curve at stroke cen-
ter, (d) mid-plane velocity curve at stroke end.
172 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178

ness at the stroke center. If the stroke length is longer

enough so that the ratio of Hertz width to the stroke
length is very small, the maximum transient lm thick-
ness will occur at the stroke center as well as the
steady-state solution. From Fig. 11(a), it can be seen
that with the increase of the stroke length, the central
lm thickness takes the maximum value near the stroke
center. As the stroke passes the center of the entraining
velocity decreases, the transient lm thickness becomes
thicker than steady-state thickness. This is because the
local oil lm moves through the EHL conjunction
approximately at the entraining velocity. That is, the
inlet lm at 3/8 T arrives near before the exit constric-
tion at 11/24 T, resulting in the maximum lm thick-
ness. The inlet and outlet lm thicknesses decrease with
the decrease in the entraining velocity, because of the Fig. 6. Maximum temperature rise during one working cycle.
L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa.
decline of wedge action, and consequently the lm is
entrapped (see Figs. 2(k,m)). One working cycle is
comprised of two strokes. During the other stroke, the
variations of lm thickness and pressure are the same Fig. 4 represents the three-dimensional distributions of
as in this stroke but the direction of lm thickness and temperatures at stroke center and end, respectively.
pressure proles is opposite. Fig. 5 shows the three-dimensional velocity distribu-
Fig. 3 shows series of temperature proles on the tions across the oil lm at stroke center and end,
two surfaces and at the mid-layer of oil lm, corre- respectively, together with their dimensionless distri-
sponding to those in Fig. 2. Because of the low entrain- bution at the middle oil layer. The variation of velocity
ing velocity and the large thermal conductivity of steel,
along the X-direction at the stroke center is extremely
the temperature rise is low. It should be noted that the
temperature rise on surface b is highest at stroke ends large. At the stroke end, the velocities of the two sur-
(Figs. 3(a,m)). This is because more heat is transferred faces are zero. However, the velocity of oil lm is not
to the lower velocity solid, though the amount of heat zero except in a certain conjunction region
produced in oil lm is smaller around stroke ends. (0:66 < X < 0:60).

Fig. 7. Comparison of isothermal and thermal results. L 2 mm, f 48 Hz, pH 0:8 GPa. (a) Central lm thickness, (b) minimum lm thick-
ness, (c) maximum pressure, (d) traction coecient.
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 173

Fig. 8. Inuence of frequency on lm thickness and pressure curves. L 1 mm, pH 0:8 GPa.

Fig. 6 shows the variation in maximum temperature
across the oil lm during one working cycle. It is inter-
esting that the maximum temperature has two peaks
during a stroke. The rst smaller peak is attributed
purely to the shear heating which increases with the
surface velocities. However, as seen from Fig. 2, fur-
ther increase in the surface velocity brings about a
decrease in the pressure. This produces a large decrease
in the viscosity of oil, resulting in the drastic reduction
of the shear heating. Therefore, the maximum tempera-
ture drops. The re-increase of pressure produced by the
wedge eect gives rise to increase of viscosity. And
mainly because of the swell of velocity gradient across
the oil lm, the maximum temperature increases again
and reaches the main peak. The compressive heating
also plays a minor role in the formation of the second
peak and the temperature rise around the stroke end.
The maximum temperature during half a working cycle
occurs at a few of time instants after the stroke center.
In Fig. 7, a comparison between thermal and iso-
thermal results is illustrated for L 2 mm, f 48 Hz,
pH 0:8 GPa. The general tendencies of the central
and minimum lm thicknesses, and the maximum
pressure for thermal and isothermal conditions are
nearly the same. Isothermal lm thickness is thicker
than thermal one while isothermal maximum pressure
is nearly the same with the thermal one. The thermal
traction coecient curve has two depressions because
174 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178
Fig. 9. Inuence of frequency on tribo-characteristics. L 1 mm, pH 0:8 GPa. (a) Central lm thickness, (b) minimum lm thickness, (c)
maximum pressure, (d) maximum temperature, (e) traction coecient.
of the two temperature peaks in Fig. 6. It should be
noted that although there is also a small dierence
between thermal and isothermal maximum pressures,
thermal central and minimum lm thicknesses are
much smaller than corresponding isothermal ones.
There is a large dierence between the thermal and iso-
thermal traction coecients. For example, the
maximum isothermal traction coecient is 0.092 while
the thermal value is 0.058 at the 38th time instant. This
fact shows that the slight increase of the temperature in
the oil lm (see Fig. 6) brings a large decrease in trac-
tion coecient and lm thickness. The isothermal trac-
tion coecient curve hardly depends on the frequency
of reciprocation while the thermal traction coecient
reduces with the increase of frequency.
Fig. 8 shows the lm thickness and pressure proles
in a stroke for L 1 mm (L=b 5:586), pH 0:8 GPa
with frequency f 391 Hz (Umax 26:33  1011 ),
96 Hz (Umax 6:46  1011 ), and 20 Hz (Umax
1:35  1011 ), respectively. It can be seen that the
pressure spike and the overall lm thickness increase
with the increase of the frequency. This is because the
entraining velocity increases with the frequency. As
seen from Fig. 8(a), with a low frequency of 20 Hz, the
thickness of the entrapped oil lm at the left-hand side
is larger than that at the right-hand side. With a fre-
quency of 96 Hz, the lm at contact center is thickest;
while for a high frequency of 391 Hz, the entrapped
lm is thickest at the right-hand side. With a higher
frequency, the slope gradient and the thickness of the
wedge-shaped oil lm are larger as shown in Fig. 8(e).
Furthermore, time stagnating around the stroke end is
shorter, and the amount of uid being squeezed out
decreases. Consequently, the oil lm in the inlet part is
still thicker at the stroke end; the lm shape at stroke is
completely dierent from that for a lower frequency of
reciprocation.
Fig. 9 represents the inuence of frequency on tribo-
characteristics for the three cases in Fig. 8. The central
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 175

Fig. 10. Inuence of stroke length on lm thickness and pressure curves. Umax 13:1  1011 .

and minimum lm thicknesses increase with the
increase of the frequency. Fig. 9(c) shows that the
amplitude of the maximum pressure increases with
the frequency. Similar to Fig. 6, the maximum tem-
perature across the oil lm has two peaks and also rises
with the increase of the frequency. However, the rst
peak does not play a subordinate role any more as that
in Fig. 6. Note that for a frequency of 391 Hz, the rst
peak of maximum temperature is higher than the
second one. The overall traction coecient decreases
with the increase of the frequency. The reduction
depends on the increase in overall lm thickness and
temperature rise with the frequency.
Fig. 10 shows the changes of lm thickness and
pressure curves under the same entraining velocity with
stroke length of 2, 5 (L=b 27:93), and 10 mm
(L=b 55:87), respectively. The dimensionless
maximum entraining velocity, at the stroke center, is
13:1  1011 . As the stroke length decreases, the overall
lm thickness at the stroke end increases because,
under a constant value of entraining velocity, the fre-
quency of reciprocation becomes higher with a decrease
in stroke length and consequently the amount of uid
being squeezed out decreases. At stroke center
(Fig. 10(d)), the lm thickness increases with the
decrease of the stroke length. One of the authors [5]
observed through point contact EHL experiments that
the overall lm thickness at the stroke end increases as
the stroke length decreases though that at the stroke
center hardly depends on the stroke length. The
authors hold the view that such a dierence depends on
air bubbles those are not considered in this study. The
176 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178
Fig. 11. Inuence of stroke length on tribo-characteristics. Umax 13:1  1011 . (a) Central lm thickness, (b) minimum lm thickness,
(c) maximum pressure, (d) maximum temperature, (e) traction coecient.
rippling proportion of the time interval of oil lm rip-
pled, tr, to time interval of a stroke, D 2tr =T, are
0.483, 0.367, 0.233 and 0.167 for stroke lengths of
L 1, 2, 5, and 10 mm, respectively. For the same
stroke length, the rippling proportion D does not
change with the variation of working frequency. There-
fore, it is concluded that D decreases with the increase
of stroke length. For example, in Fig. 10(c), the oil lm
of L 2 mm still ripples while the rippling phenomena
both disappear for the other two stroke lengths.
Fig. 11 gives the inuence of stroke length on tribo-
characteristics corresponding to Fig. 10. The amplitude
of either central or minimum lm thickness decreases
with the decrease of the stroke length (Figs. 11(a,b)), so
does that of the maximum temperature curve in
Fig. 11(d). The central lm thickness rstly thickens
with the moving of the entrapped thick lm at left-
hand side. After the entrapped lm passes the contact
center, the central lm thickness starts to decrease due
to the pass of the constrictive lm formed at the left-
hand side at the former stroke end and takes the mini-
mum lm thickness. Then the central lm thickness
increases gradually due to the increase in the wedge
eect, and attains the maximum at a few time instants
past the stroke center. The change of the minimum lm
thickness is less drastic than the central lm thickness.
Its thickest value also takes place at the same time
instant when the maximum central lm thickness
occurs. The maximum pressure is biggest at the stroke
end and then reduces with the increase of surface velo-
cities. When the entrapped lm moves out of the con-
junction, the maximum pressure takes the smallest
value and then increases again with the increase of the
wedge eect. The values of the maximum pressure at
the stroke end for the three cases are nearly the same,
so do their minimum values. However, the positions
corresponding to the minimum value of maximum
pressure dier from each other (Fig. 11(c)). With the
increase of the stroke length, the magnitude of the rst
peak in the maximum temperature curve becomes small
 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178 177

Fig. 13. Inuence of slidingrolling ratio on tribo-characteristics. L 2 mm, Umax 4:85  1011 . (a) Central lm thickness, (b) minimum lm
thickness, (c) maximum pressure, (d) maximum temperature, (e) traction coecient.

(Fig. 11(d)). The general traction coecients of the
three cases are almost the same (Fig. 11(e)). The dier-
ence in locations of the maximum and minimum cen-
tral and minimum lm thicknesses, the minimum
pressure, peak of the maximum temperatures together
with the reduction of traction coecients can be
explained by the dierence of the rippling proportion.
Fig. 12 shows the inuence of the applied load on
the lm thickness and pressure proles during a stroke
for L 5 mm, f 40 Hz and maximum Hertzian
pressure pH 0:57, 0.8, and 1.0 GPa, respectively. The
depth of entrapped oil lm and the maximum pressure
attained at the stroke end, respectively, increases with
the increase of applied load. The overall lm thickness
becomes smaller with the increase of the applied load.
Fig. 13 shows the inuence of the slideroll ratio on
the tribo-characteristics during one working cycle
under the same entraining velocity with L 2 mm,
pH 0:8 GPa. The slideroll ratios are 0, 1.0 and 2.0,
respectively, corresponding to pure rolling, slidingroll-
ing, and pure sliding conditions. The dimensionless
maximum entraining velocity, at the stroke center, is
4:85  1011 . With the increase of the slideroll ratio,
the central and minimum lm thickness (Figs. 13(a,b))
generally decrease due to the increase of oil tempera-
ture. The maximum pressure (Fig. 13(c)) also decreases
with the increase of slideroll ratio while the maximum
thermal rise (Fig. 13(d)) increases signicantly. For
pure rolling working condition, the traction coecient
is negligible small while those under slideroll ratios of
1.0 and 2.0 are very similar (in Fig. 13(e)).
4. Conclusions
The main results obtained are summarized as follows:
1. The oil lm is entrapped at stroke end due to
squeeze eect and breathes cyclically because of the
combined wedge and squeeze actions. There is a sig-
nicant discrepancy between transient and steady-
state solutions.
178 J. Wang et al. / Tribology International 38 (2005) 165178
2. Even though the temperature rise is small, thermal
eect plays an important role in the traction coef-
cient and lm thickness.
3. The lm thickness increases with the increase of fre-
quency.
4. Under the same entraining velocity but dierent
stroke length, the characteristics of oil lm dier
from each other.
5. The overall lm thickness becomes smaller with the
increase of the applied load.
6. The slideroll ratio inuences the tribo-character-
istics of oil lm considerably, especially on
maximum temperature rise across the oil lm.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Mr. H. Nishikawa of
Kyushu Institute of Technology for his kind help in
this work. This study is supported by Grant-in-aid for
Scientic Research (No. 15002009) from the Ministry
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
Japan.
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