Abstract

<jats:p>Predicting the mixed thermal lubrication performance and fatigue life of point contact components becomes more and more important with the increasing demand for the load capacity of machinery. To achieve this, a deterministic mixed thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) model in point contacts considering surface roughness is developed in this study. This model is capable of determining the pressure and temperature under different lubrication regimes from mixed to full-film lubrication. Then, the established model is extended to the subsurface stress and fatigue life predictions. Numerical simulations are conducted to analyze the lubrication characteristics and fatigue life for the three-dimensional (3D) sinusoidal surfaces with variable directions. Results show that increasing entraining velocity contributes to the reduction of pressure fluctuation and prolongation of fatigue life. However, the resulting temperature increases with the entraining velocity. As for the influence of lubricant viscosity, increasing it prolongs the fatigue life, especially under mixed TEHL conditions. What's more, the effect of rough surface texture feature on fatigue life has a close relationship with the lubrication regime.</jats:p>