Study on combined influence of inter-asperity cavitation and elastic deformation of non-Gaussian surfaces on flow factors

The combined influence of inter-asperity cavitation and elastic deformation of non-Gaussian surfaces on flow factors is numerically investigated based on the equations for flow factor analyses, since some engineering surfaces are non-Gaussian. For this task, non-Gaussian surfaces are generated at first through a digital filter technique by using authors’ computer code whose validity is proven. The numerical results show that the pressure flow factor increases whereas the shear flow factor decreases with low film thickness-to-roughness ratio (h/σ < 3 or so). This is due to the above-said combined influence, if the oblique flow of lubricant is not obvious. But for a high film thickness-to-roughness ratio (approximately h/σ ≥ 3), the combined influence becomes weaker, hence ignored. Therefore, the above-said combined effect similar to the one from Gaussian surface circumstances ought to be considered in flow factor analyses and their applications.