A Simple Method to Calculate Contact Factor Used in Average Flow Model

Abstract

The average flow model proposed by Patir and Cheng offers a great convenience for the analysis of rough surfaces in lubrication. The contact factor introduced by Wu and Zheng helps to solve a difficulty in local film evaluation using the average flow model. This paper reports a simple method to calculate the contact factor. Method validation is demonstrated by the comparison of the contact factors for Gaussian surfaces obtained with the present method and the fitting formula of Wu and Zheng. The proposed method cannot only easily compute the contact factor values for Gaussian surfaces; it can also be used for those of non-Gaussian and measured surfaces, especially those with unknown probability density distribution of the roughness height.