Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Analysis of Tapered Roller Bearings Based on a Finite Line Contact Model

Insufficient lubrication within bearings can cause damage such as gluing, burning, and even bearing failure. Hence, assessing the lubrication performance is essential for the design of bearings. This paper proposes an isothermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) finite line contact model, specifically focusing on the distributions of oil film pressure and oil film thickness between a tapered roller and raceways. The objective is to analyze the effects of various parameters on the lubrication performance. The numerical solution is obtained using the multigrid method and the multilevel multi-integration method. The results reveal that the secondary pressure spike increases with increasing concentrated load, bearing speed, and composite elastic modulus. Conversely, the minimum film thickness decreases with increasing concentrated load and composite elastic modulus, but becomes larger with the increase of bearing speed. These findings provide valuable theoretical insights for the lubrication design of tapered roller bearings.