Lubrication of rollers by power law fluids considering consistency-variation with pressure and temperature (Q1922003)

The authors analyze the performance characteristics of the steady lubrication of two rigid cylindrical rollers under entraining and squeezing motion. The lubricant has been taken to be a power law fluid with presure and temperature dependent consistency index. The cavitation conditions are built into the work. Appropriate Reynolds and energy equations have been solved simultaneously to obtain pressure and temperature distributions using Adams-Moulton scheme. Other bearing characteristics such as load and traction ratios, maximum pressure and its location, temperature ratios etc. have been computed for several flow behaviour indices. It has been found that the effect of the temperature on the lubricant consistency is to shift the pressure peak slightly away from the centre line of contact, whereas the opposite trend is observed for the cavitation points. Results compare well with those obtained under isothermal conditions. The authors, therefore, feel that their findings may be applicable to situations where the bearing load is such that it does not deform the surface.