Magneto-elastohydrodynamic lubrication of circular contacts at impact loading

In this paper, the pure squeeze magneto-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (MEHL) motion of circular contacts with an electrically conducting fluid in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is explored at impact loading. The coupled transient modified Reynolds, the elasticity deformation, and the ball motion equations are solved simultaneously, thus obtaining the transient pressure profiles, film shapes, normal squeeze velocities, and accelerations. The simulation results reveal that the greater the externally applied magnetic fields, the greater the film thickness and the rigid separation are, the smaller the maximum value of the impact force is, the rebounding velocity and the peak value of acceleration decrease. During impact process, the greater the effect of externally applied magnetic field is, the greater the pressure spike is, the greater the film thickness is, the larger the diameter of the dimple is, and the later the pressure spike and the dimple are formed. Further, this analysis demonstrates numerically that the contact central pressure for a ball impacting and rebounding from a lubricated surface reached two peaks during the total impact period. As the effects of externally applied magnetic fields increase, the first peak and second peak form later, the total impact time increases, the first peak and the second peak increase. Moreover, the phase shift is caused by the damping and elastic properties increase with increasing externally applied magnetic field.