Abstract
In this study, the impact of a rigid ball on a substrate with lubricant in-between is examined. 15 A linear hardening model for the elastic/plastic substrate deformation is assumed. A 16 power-law model is used to describe the lubricant rheology. Throughout the impact period, 17 variations in the pressure distribution, the film thickness distribution, the velocity of a rigid 18 ball, the impact load, the von Mises stress distribution, and the plastic strain distribution 19 on the substrate are calculated. The special cases of ET = E in the present impact-PEHL 20 results are in good agreement with previous impact-EHL results using a power-law model 21 [25]. The variation of central pressure over time in the PEHL model is flatter and lower 22 compared to that in the EHL model. The significant difference shows that the plastic 23 deformation mechanism should be considered in the simulation. The results indicate that 24 as the flow-index (n) increases, the central pressure and central film thickness increases, 25 the pressure spike occurs earlier, and the rigid ball's rebounding velocity and maximum 26 impact load decrease. Moreover, as the tangent modulus of the linear hardening model of 27 the substrate increases, the rigid ball's rebounding velocity and the maximum impact load 28 increases, and the substrate deformation and plastic strain decrease.
