Effect of surface roughness on magneto-hydrodynamic squeeze-film characteristics between a sphere and a porous plane surface

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to analyse the effects of surface roughness on the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) squeeze-film characteristics between a sphere and a porous plane surface, which have not been studied so far. Design/methodology/approach - The analytical model takes into account the effect of porosity by assuming that the flow in the porous matrix obeys modified Darcy's law. The stochastic MHD Reynold's type equation is derived by using the Christensen's stochastic method developed for hydrodynamic lubrication of rough surfaces. Two types of one-dimensional surface roughness (radial and azimuthal) patterns are considered. Findings - The expressions for the mean MHD squeeze-film pressure and mean load-carrying capacity are obtained numerically. The results are shown graphically for selected representative parametric values. It is found that the response time increases significantly for the MHD case as compared to the corresponding non-conducting lubricants. The effect of roughness parameter is to increase/decrease the load-carrying capacity and the response time for azimuthal/radial roughness patterns as compared to the smooth case. Also, the effect of porous parameter is to decrease the load-carrying capacity and response time as compared to the solid case. Originality/value - In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the combined effects of surface roughness and permeability on the MHD squeeze-film characteristics between a sphere and a plane surface. Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.