• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.228-234
• /
• 2013

This paper presents analysis of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of ball bearings, in which surface roughness is considered. A lot of time is required to obtain a solution in the case of EHL analysis where surface roughness is considered, because the analysis requires a variety of analytic nodes. To save time, we use the full approximation scheme (FAS) among multilevel methods. We analyze the results of EHL and contact analyses in terms of pressure. We also compare the results for smooth and rough surfaces with respect to film thickness. We confirm that the film pressure decreases as compared to contact pressure because of the presence of lubricants between the ball and the raceway. Furthermore, in the case when surface roughness is considered, the film pressure increases because of contact asperities. Therefore, surface roughness should be considered when designing ball bearings.