For the past ten years, the loads applied on small end of conrods have become increasingly severe in automotive engines. Today, the necessity of numerical simulations of lubrication of these bearings has become an imperative concern for design engineers. However, the physical phenomenon related to the oil feeding of the small end bushes are generally not taken into account in industrial models. Moreover, the specific behavior of the small end bushes is rarely considered and could be sometimes misunderstood.
To provide contributions to this problem, the analysis of the main parameters related to the lubrication of this kind of bearings have been carried out. Several characteristics of the oil feeding process have been investigated such as the influence of the clearance, the oil viscosity, the engine speed and specific configurations like grooves and oil holes. The study of their influences on the oil film thickness in the small end bushes have been realized.
From these different investigations, some orientations have been drawn out in order to show what could be recommended for engineers to optimize this element.