2022 年 67 巻 1 号 p. 44-53
Oil film and cavitation are formed around the EHL contact area in machinery that utilize rolling contact mechanism. The shape of these regions has a great influence on the supply of lubricating oil to the EHL contact area. However, many researchers only treated the oil films under low load or low peripheral velocity conditions. Therefore, in our previous study, we visualized the oil film and the cavitation under the high load and the high peripheral velocity conditions. As a result, it was confirmed that cavitation decreased in high peripheral velocity and the atmosphere was sucked in from the rear part of the oil film. Moreover, it was concluded that these phenomena occur caused by the pressure difference of oil film around the EHL contact area. Therefore, in this study, the pressure distributions in the oil film were estimated utilizing the PIV analysis results and the Navier-Stokes equation. As a result, it was found that the change of pressure around the cavitation with respect to the peripheral velocity was related to the change in the cavitation length. Moreover, it was also found that the pressure on both sides of the rear region in the oil film was the lowest.
