Study on mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication performance of point contact with non‐Gaussian rough surface

Abstract A numerical method is proposed to evaluate the effect of non‐Gaussian roughness on point contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL). A mixed EHL model of point contact, considering non‐Gaussian roughness, is developed. The oil film pressure in the model was controlled by the Reynolds equation of average flow, and the contact pressure of asperity was obtained by the rough surface micro‐contact model. The influence of non‐Gaussian roughness parameters on contact pressure distribution, film thickness profile and the ratio of asperity pressure to contact load (asperity load ratio) are investigated based on the mixed EHL model. The results show that the asperity pressure increases as root mean square (RMS) roughness increases, skewness and kurtosis. The film thickness also increases with RMS roughness and skewness, but is not sensitive to kurtosis.