Proceedings of STLE/ASME International Joint Tribology Conference
IJTC2008
A MODE-BASED ELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC FORMULATION EMPLOYING LOW
MODULUS HYPERELASTIC MATERIAL MODELS
A. Richie
Kalsi Engineering Inc.
Sugar Land, TX
S. Boedo
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a mode-based elastohydrodynamic
formulation employing low-modulus hyperelastic material
models which exhibit strongly non-linear load-deflection
characteristics. The mode-based method is applied to a
reciprocating liquid O-ring seal, where it is found under steady
axial motion that a relatively small set of modes captures the
essential features of seal deformation when compared with that
obtained with standard node-based methods.
INTRODUCTION
Reciprocating liquid seals are often composed of low
modulus, nearly inelastic materials whose elastohydrodynamic
(EHD) interaction (as evaluated by film thickness distribution,
film pressure distribution, and flow) is influenced by large
structural bearing surface deformation, large elastic strains, and
nonlinear load-deflection characteristics. Early modeling
approaches for such bearing systems [1-3] employed an inverse
or decoupled analysis approach where the film pressure
distribution is first computed from a related nonlubricated
contact problem, and the lubricant film thickness is
subsequently determined by substituting this pressure
distribution into an appropriate Reynolds equation. These
decoupled models, however, fail to adequately capture film
thickness distributions at the inlet (boosting zone) and exit film
regions, which in turn lead to considerable error in predicting
seal leakage performance. Field and Nau [4] presented a direct
or coupled EHD analysis method which simultaneously solves
the Reynolds and elasticity equations using a heavy under-
relaxation computational technique. A coupled EHD
formulation developed by Oh and Rhode [5] employing a
Newton-Raphson solution method was implemented by Ruskell
[6] for a rectangular seal. Salant et al. [7] recently employed a
more sophisticated coupled method to capture realistic effects
October 20-22, 2008, Miami, Florida USA
IJTC2008-71165
R. W. Metcalfe
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Houston
Houston, TX
of mixed lubrication and asperity contact in a reciprocating
hydraulic rod seal.
All previous direct solution methods devoted to
reciprocating liquid seals can be classified as node-based EHD
models which couple structural elasticity and lubrication
behavior at discrete locations along the lubricant film. Elastic
seal properties are usually captured by influence coefficients or
a stiffness matrix based on a linearly elastic seal model. Such
node-based models have been applied successfully to so-called
locally elastic structures, such as gear and roller bearing
contacts, in which the bearing deformation is local to the
applied load distribution.
METHODS
This paper presents a mode-based EHD formulation [8-10]
employing low modulus hyperelastic material models, with
application to a reciprocating O-ring seal as shown in Fig. 1.
Mode-based EHD methods represent seal surface deformation
by a linear combination of a relatively small number of
structural mode shapes, and the method has been shown to
capture well the EHD bearing behavior of so-called globally
elastic structures such as connecting rod bearings [11], flexible
gas microbearings [12], and flexible thrust washers [13], where
the bearing deformation is global to the applied load
distribution. Structural elasticity is modeled using ANSYS, and
the lubricant film behavior is modeled using both finite element
[14] and spectral [15] methods. The O-ring is an axisymmetric
structure represented by a two-term Mooney-Rivlin material
model compressed between two rigid cylindrical walls. Due to
assumed model axisymmetry, the lubricant film thickness
distribution generated between the housing and seal from
prescribed O-ring motion (at constant axial velocity V) is one-
dimensional and oriented axially along the contact region.
1 Copyright © 2008 by ASME
 modal contributions onto the finite element mesh. It is
observed that 40 structural modes (selected by increasing
eigenvalue) are adequate to capture the essential features of
bearing deformation, and results obtained with 100 structural
modes are essentially identical to that computed using the
node-based method.

Fig. 1 O-Ring seal geometry

In the absence of a lubricant film, the contact region and

contact pressure obtained through O-ring compression is shown
in Fig. 2. Using this compressed state as a reference, master
nodes representing the lubricant film are taken from those
structural nodes residing both within and adjacent to the dry
contact region so as to account for film thickness variation in Fig. 2 Contact pressure solution obtained from
the lubricant boosting zone and exit regions (Fig. 3). At these ANSYS model (reference state)
master nodes, a linearized condensed stiffness matrix of the O-
ring structure is extracted, from which area-based mode shapes
and mode eigenvalues are computed [9]. This condensed
matrix and its modal decomposition are coupled with the
lubricant film model.

RESULTS
Figure 4 compares the film thickness distribution obtained
using node- and mode-based analysis methods. The lubricant
film is represented by an assemblage of one-dimensional finite
elements connected at 260 nodes. Zero pressure boundary
conditions are applied at the bearing ends, and cavitation is
accounted for by setting negative pressures to zero. Using the
node-based analysis method, the condensed stiffness matrix Fig. 3 Master nodes employed in lubrication model
representing lubricant-based load-deflection characteristics is
computed at each of the 260 nodal locations, and the resulting
steady-state nodal film thickness and nodal film pressure Figure 5 compares node- and mode-based methods by
distributions are calculated by under-relaxation. Using the solving the Reynolds equation using a spectral method with
mode-based analysis method, structural deformation is domain decomposition [16]. A set of 100 structural modes and
represented by a linear combination of mode shapes taken from a set of 8 spectral fluid elements are coupled to obtain nodal
a modal decomposition of the condensed stiffness matrix. The film thickness and pressure distributions. The results obtained
problem thus resorts to the computation of modal contribution using a coupled spectral mode-based solution method agree
factors (also using under-relaxation) from which the nodal film well with those obtained with the node-based solution method.
thickness distribution can be found by a transformation of

2 Copyright © 2008 by ASME

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Fig. 5 Node- and mode-based solution comparison
with spectral fluid film elements

3 Copyright © 2008 by ASME