A novel coupled computational method for thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication problem in reciprocating seals

• A novel coupled computational method is proposed for the TEHL analysis of reciprocating seals. • A thermohydrodynamic lubrication element is developed to couple the thermal, fluid, solid domain. • The proposed method enables efficient predictions of temperature distribution and flow rate. • The proposed method outperforms the existing method regarding computation efficiency and accuracy. In engineering, reciprocating seals generate frictional heat during operation, leading to complex thermo-fluid-structure interactions within the sealing region. These interactions pose significant challenges in computational methods efficiently predicting the sealing performance. In this paper, a novel finite element method (FEM) based coupled computational method (FEMCM) is proposed for the thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication problem (TEHL) in reciprocating seals. In the FEMCM, the structure domain and the lubricating fluid domain are discretized using the FEM, and the thermo-fluid-structure coupling within the sealing region is achieved by a novel thermohydrodynamic lubrication element (THLE). Consequently, a monolithic finite element formulation for the TEHL is established and the unknowns within the sealing region are obtained simultaneously. In numerical examples, comparison studies are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the FEMCM first, and then the advantages of the FEMCM are illustrated by comparing with the influence coefficient matrix method. Results show that the newly proposed FEMCM significantly enhances computation efficiency, making it suitable for complex seal design and optimization.