A STUDY ON FLOW PHENOMENA IN MIXED LUBRICATION REGIME BY POROUS-MEDIUM MODEL

A porous medium model is basically a macroscopic description of the fl uid behavior and is considered more appropriate to the mixed lubricati on regime. The present work has successfully combined the flow factor method, porous medium model and continuum percolation theory to invest igate the flow phenomena in the mixed lubrication regime. Not only the lubricant flow can be solved but also the anisotropic percolation thr eshold can be obtained. Instead of the flow factor which is singular n ear h = 0, the lubricant flux itself is considered. A new definition o f the pressure flow factor which is more appropriate to the mixed lubr ication realm is suggested.