ABSTRACT
The chapter is devoted to the application of the early developed asymptotic approach to solution of the steady isothermal EHL problem for heavily loaded point contacts with spinning and rolling elastic ball in an elastic grooved raceway. It is shown that the whole contact region can be subdivided into three subregions: the central one which is far away from the other two regions occupied by the ends of the horse-shoe shaped pressure/gap distribution (HSSPGD). The central region, in turn, can be subdivided into the Hertzian region and two adjacent boundary layers - the inlet and exit zones. Moreover, in the central region in the inlet and exit zones the EHL problem can be reduced to asymptotically valid equations identical to the ones obtained in the inlet and exit zones of heavily loaded line EHL contacts. These equations can be analyzed and numerically solved based on the stable methods using a specific regularization approach which were developed for lubricated line contacts. Cases of pre-critical and over-critical lubrication regimes are considered. Some special cases of the problem are also considered. The byproduct of this asymptotic analysis is an easy analytical derivation of formulas for the lubrication film thickness for pre-critical and over-critical lubrication regimes. The latter allows for simple analysis of the film thickness as a function of spinning angular speed, angle of the entrained lubricant, and other pertinent contact characteristics. The purpose of this chapter is to establish a relationship between the EHL
problems and their solutions for heavily loaded line and point contacts an case of the presence of spinning. It will be done using the asymptotic methods developed in the preceding chapters. It will be shown that along the ”central” lubricant flow streamlines in the contact the EHL problem solution behavior for heavily loaded point contacts are very similar if not identical to the ones of the well understood EHL problems for heavily loaded line contacts.
