Homogenization of the Reynolds Equation Governing Hydrodynamic Flow in a Rotating Device

Abstract

In this paper, a method facilitating the analysis of the effects of surface roughness on the lubrication of a rotating device is presented. The analysis utilizes homogenization—a suitable technique for averaging the effects of roughness as modeled by the Reynolds equation. The originality of this work lies in a novel way of deriving the so called local problems, also known as microbearing problems. It is clearly shown how this increases the computational efficiency by eliminating the dependence of the global coordinates on the formulation of these local problems. This does not only speed up the computation, it also means that the derived flow factors or flow tensors require less storage space. To provide for good usability, alongside the flow factors for the averaged Reynolds equation, the correction factors for the averaged friction torque (and force) and the expression for averaged load carrying capacity are presented here.