The homogenization process of the Reynolds equation describing compressible liquid flow

This paper summarizes the homogenization process of rough, hydrodynamic lubrication problems governed by the Reynolds equation used to describe compressible liquid flow. Here, the homogenized equation describes the limiting result when the wavelength of a modeled surface roughness goes to zero. The lubricant film thickness is modeled by one part describing the geometry/shape of the bearing and a periodic part describing the surface topography/roughness. By varying the periodic part as well as its wavelength, we can try to systematically investigate the applicability of homogenization on this type of problem. The load carrying capacity is the target parameter; deterministic solutions are compared to homogenized by this measure. We show that the load carrying capacity rapidly converges to the homogenized results as the wavelength decreases, proving that the homogenized solution gives a very accurate representation of the problem when real surface topographies are considered.