Analysis on lubrication contact characteristics of imperfect transversely isotropic coating.

• An EHL model considering imperfect transversely isotropic coating was developed. • Imperfect of normal interfacial displacement has a great influence on lubrication. • Coating thickness under cooperative bearing capacity is recommended about 0.03 a to 4 a. Lubricated contact characteristics of transversely isotropic coating considering imperfect interface is of great importance in engineering to provide guidance on tribological design and optimization of tribo-pairs. The current investigation reports an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) contact model for transversely isotropic coating of imperfect interface. The interface is described by dislocation-like condition, i.e., displacement across it is transmitted discontinuously and such discontinuity is controlled by an imperfect index changing from 0 to 1. Based on this interfacial condition, frequency response functions (FRFs) of elastic field of imperfect transversely isotropic coating were derived, which was further used to establish the EHL contact model combined with the lubrication theory. The proposed model can be reduced to the one without coating, whose calculation results are consistent with those from literatures, providing a good verification. Finally, effects of imperfect index of interfacial displacement, coating thickness on film thickness, surface pressure, stress for transversely isotropic coating were investigated using the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]