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This paper aims to provide thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) contact model to study all balls’ lubrication performance of the ball screw when the multidirectional load is applied.

A new TEHL contact model combining the multidirectional load and the roughness surface texture is established to describe fatigue life of the ball screw. Meanwhile, the authors use the Reynolds equation to study the lubrication performance of the ball screw.

When the multidirectional load is applied, contact load, slide-roll ratio and entrainment velocity of all balls have a periodic shape. The TEHL performance values at the ball-screw contact points including contact stress, shear stress, minimum film thickness and temperature rise are higher than that at the ball-nut contact points. The TEHL performance values increase with the increase of root mean square (RMS) except for the film thickness. In addition, the radial load of the ball screw has a significant effect on the fatigue life.

The results of the studies demonstrate the new TEHL contact model that provides the instructive significance to analyze the fatigue life of the ball screw under the multidirectional load.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-03-2020-0097/