Surface contact in micro-EHL

The study of micro elastohydrodynamic lubrication (micro-EHL) of rough surfaces leads naturally to mixed lubrication where part of the load is carried by pressure in the hydrodynamic film, and part of the load by contact pressure between parts of the surfaces that make direct contact without the benefit of a hydrodynamic film. The paper is concerned with numerical analysis of this situation. Some attention is given to the details of a numerical scheme able to deal with mixed lubrication in micro-EHL in a single, integrated, solution method, and the sensitivity of direct contact calculations to mesh spacing is examined.