Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Modeling by a Cosserat Continuum Theory for Small Polymer Journal Bearings

Recent experiments have shown that the elastic deformation behaviors of a polymeric material are consistent with the Cosserat elasticity under nonuniform deformation at a millimeter scale. Thus, an elastohydrodynamic lubrication model in the framework of the Cosserat continuum theory is proposed to explore the lubrication performance that deviates from the classical elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory for the small polymer journal bearings with millimeter size. The elastic deformation of the bearing sleeve made of polymeric material and the pressure distribution in a lubricating film are obtained through an iterative solution of the equation of the Cosserat elasticity and the modified Reynolds’ equations with considering the boundary slippage. The effect of bearing size and Cosserat characteristic lengths for torsion and bending on the lubrication performance of the small polymer journal bearings is studied using the proposed Cosserat elastohydrodynamic lubrication model. It was fo

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