Simulation sudden oil supply in starved high-speed angular contact ball bearing

Many high-speed angular contact ball bearings work without sufficient lubrication in the contact area. A dynamic model including starved thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) was proposed to investigate starved ball bearings. For the bearings subjected to axial and radial loads, the inlet film thickness suddenly increases, the friction coefficient drops rapidly, and the ball skids severely as it passes through the low load region. When the location of the change occurs in the low load region, the degree of skidding is significantly reduced. Furthermore, the outer contact zone mainly determines whether or not to skid. Therefore starved high-speed bearings need to avoid a sudden increase in the inlet film thickness in the outer contact zone.