The Effects of Anisotropic Surface Topography and Relative Motion on Hydrodynamic Lubrication

According to the extended Reynolds theory, surface roughness contributes to the pressure buildup as well as shear stress and transport in the film flow. The effect is usually quantified using pressure and shear flow factors. The influence of the pattern directionality relative to the sliding motion may be considered using an anisotropic model of flow factors. The goal of the present study is to quantify these effects based on a precise numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations. For the computation the open source finite volume code OpenFOAM is used. The computational setup allows consideration of the lubrication film between two rough surfaces in relative motion. The roughness of the surfaces is simplified and parameterized using trigonometric functions.