A Universal Model for Both Flooded and Starved Lubrication Regimes and Its Application in Ring–Liner System

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new flow continuity model by modifying the traditional Elrod-Adams model. Both fully flooded lubrication and starved lubrication can be predicted using the universal model. In particular, for the starved lubrication problem, the inlet and outlet boundaries of oil film can be automatically determined. The discontinuity of the convection flow (or lubricant transport velocity) at the interface between the full lubricant film region and the partial lubricant film region is overcome by introducing a transition region. In addition, the two-dimensional version of the presented model is deduced. Furthermore, using the presented model, the results are presented to gain insight on the influence of starvation on the friction for the textured ring–liner system.

KEYWORDS:

• Starved lubrication
• Elrod-Adams model
• surface texturing

Funding

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51375300, 51575342) and the Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration (Grant No. MSVZD201401).