Achievement

A novel mixed lubrication model, the plasto-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (PEHL) model, has been developed for the investigation of the mixed lubrication performance of powertrain components. This is a significant step toward the practical simulation of component working status. Compared with hydrodynamic lubrication and elastohydrodynamic lubrication modeling, the PEHL model can provide more accurate information of the pressure and film thickness distributions and subsurface stress and plastic strain fields for surfaces under a mixed lubrication contact. A linear hardening law is employed to capture the plastic behavior of the material once the stress level is over the yield limit. A sample case has been analyzed, and the results are compared with the data from the corresponding elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory. Model verification has been done using results from the FEM solution of indentation of an elastic-perfectly-plastic half-space by a rigid ball.