A Two-Phase Flow Solver with Variable Liquid Compressibility and Temperature Equation for Partitioned Simulation of Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new OpenFOAM-based solver for elastohydrodynamic lubrication that models variable liquid compressibility and thermal effects, enabling accurate simulation of challenging lubricant flows in narrow gaps.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, modular solver in OpenFOAM that incorporates compressibility, rheology, and thermal effects for elastohydrodynamic lubrication, with validation and coupling capabilities.

Findings

Validated solver accurately models high-pressure lubricant flows.

Enables simulation of elastohydrodynamic contacts with thermal effects.

Demonstrates coupling of lubricant and structural solvers in OpenFOAM.

Abstract

This paper presents a new solver developed in OpenFOAM for the modeling of lubricant in the narrow gap between two surfaces inducing hydrodynamic pressures up to few gigapascal. Cavitation is modeled using the homogeneous equilibrium model. The mechanical and thermodynamic constitutive behavior of the lubricant is accurately captured by inclusion of compressibility, lubricant rheology and thermal effects. Different constitutive models can be selected at run time, through the adoption of the modular approach of OpenFOAM. By combining the lubricant solver with a structural solver using a coupling tool, elastohydrodynamically lubricated contacts can be accurately simulated in a partitioned way. The solution approach is validated and examples with different slip conditions are included. The benefit for the OpenFOAM community of this work is the creation of a new solver for lubricant flow in challenging conditions and at the same the illustration of combining OpenFOAM solvers with other open-source software packages.