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THE GENERALISED REYNOLDS EQUATION

The generalised Reynolds equation is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations and continuity equation.Some assumptions are considered to derive this equation which are known as basic assumptions in the theory of lubrication.The derived equation is applicable to both incompressible as well as compressible lubricant. The assumptions to be made are as followed:1. Inertia and body force term are negligible compared with the pressure and viscous term. 2. There is no pressure variation across the fluid film,which means p/ . 3. There is no slip in the fluid solid boundaries. 4. 5. The flow is viscous and laminar. 6. Due to geometry of fluid film,the derivatives of u and w with respect to y are much larger then other derivatives of velocity components. 7. The height of film h is very small compared to the bearing length l. A typical value of h/l is about 10 .

The Navier-Stoke equations can be written in the following form:= X- + -2/3( )

*( )+

*(

)+

= Y- +

2/3(

*(

)+

*(

)+

= Z- +

2/3(

*(

)+

*(

)+

Where u , v , w are velocity components in x , y and z directions, and p is pressure in the fluid film.The total derivatives of the velocity components Du/dt , Dv/dt and Dw/dt are three components of acceleration of fluid.These may be expended as:=u =u , =u and

The term on the left hand side represents inertia term and term on the right hand side represents body force ,pressure gradient and viscous terms in navier-Stoke equation. The continuity equation may be written in the Cartesian coordinate as:

Using the basic assumption , the equation (1) and (3) can be reduced to and

Integrating above equation (4) and (5) we get ( )

i.e

and

( i.e =

Integrating (6) and (7) again, we get u = +c1y + c3 and

w=

+c2y + c4

In the above equations c1 ,c2 , c3 ,c4 are all integration constants. Boundary conditions :- At y = 0 ,u = ,w = and at y=h , u= , w=

y z

Introducing the boundary condition in the above equation ,we get:-

u= w=

Now putting the value of u and w in the continuity equation , we get:= ,( { [ ) y(y-h)] + -[ y(y-h)]} ( ) }] -

Now integrating equation (8) wrt. y with the boundary condition:At y = 0 ,v = y=h,v= we get:( ( ) y(y-h)]dy + dy-h y(y-h)]dy} - ( ) dy-

and

By making use of the relation: -f(x,y,z)

Integrating the above equation , we get;-

(
+h

++

Now

+h

Putting the value of equation of equation (10) in equation (9) , we get:-

This is the generalised Reynolds equation.The two terms in the left hand side of this equation give the net flow rate due to pressure gradients.The first two terms of the right hand side describe the flow rates due to surface velocities.These are known as Poiseuille and Couette terms,respectively.The last term of the equation describe the net flow rate due to squeeze motion and local compression. In practice all the velocity components are not present.In most of the cases,we are concerned with the following boundary velocities:= ,

Using these conditions and take average velocity , U =

, we get:-

=U

For steady state condition,generalised Reynolds equation become:-

=U

If the fluid is incompressible , in that case the equation becomes:-

=U