A Fast Thermoelastic Model Based on the Half-Space Theory Applied to Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Line Contacts Involving Free Boundaries

This study allows contact models based on semi-analytical methods including the impacts of thermoelastic deformations in contacts of finite dimension bodies. The proposed method controls heat flows crossing free boundaries. A comparison with finite element analysis (FEA) reveals that the proposed method can reduce the calculation times by more than 98%. The paper introduces the thermoelasticity effects into thermal-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) modeling of line contact problems. The analysis reveals that including thermoelastic deformations changes the pressure profile and tends to localize the pressure close to the distribution center. Compared to TEHL simulations, the examined configurations caused an overall increase in the maximum pressure by about 9%, an overall film thickness reduction of about 7%, and an overall temperature increase of about 2 K.