Modeling of surface and subsurface crack behavior under contact load in the presence of lubricant

A new mathematical model for lubricated elastic solids weakened by cracks is proposed. Surface and subsurface cracks are taken into account, and the interaction of lubricant with elastic solids within cavities of surface cracks is regarded as the most interesting aspect of the problem. The boundary conditions characterizing the behavior of lubricant within crack cavities such as pressure rise in crack cavities fully filled with lubricant as well as other boundary and additional conditions are derived. The problem is reduced to a system of integro-differential equations with nonlinear boundary conditions in the form of alternating equations and inequalities. A new iterative numerical method is developed for solution of the proposed problem. The method guarantees conservation of lubricant volumes trapped within closed crack cavities and allows for all three functions (normal and tangential displacement jumps and normal stress applied to crack faces) characterizing the problem solution to be determined simultaneously. Examples of numerical results for surface and subsurface cracks are presented and numerical and asymptotic results for small subsurface cracks are compared to each other. The numerical analysis indicates that depending on a surface crack orientation its normal stress intensity factor may be two or more orders of magnitude higher than the one for a similar subsurface one.