Aircraft landing gear greased slider bearing steady-state thermo-elastohydrodynamic concept model

This paper presents a steady-state concept model for studying the thermal behavior of a greased aircraft landing gear lower slider bearing. Structural damage has been reported as a consequence of excessive heat generated by the high loads induced by rough runways on the bearings, and by the high sliding velocities of the piston. The goal of the model is to enable fundamental understanding of the frictional heat generation. The governing equations are adapted for grease flow and special attention is given to the underlying algorithm of the developed numerical framework used to efficiently solve the governing equations. The developed numerical code is validated against existing results. Numerical results indicate fundamental differences in fluid flow behavior between greased and oil-lubricated bearings.