Amplitude reduction in EHL line contacts under rolling sliding conditions

Surface roughness plays an important role in the performance of highly loaded elastohydrodynamically lubricated contacts. As the pressures are very high, each of the surface roughness components deforms differently, and as a result the roughness inside the highly loaded contact is different from the measured roughness. Under pure rolling conditions the amplitude reduction theory describes the waviness deformation as a function of wavelength and operating conditions. The current work suggests that similar predictions are possible under rolling sliding conditions, provided that the wavy surface velocity u₂ exceeds the smooth surface velocity u₁. For u₂<u₁ the maximum value of A_d/A_i depends on the slide to roll ratio and may be significantly less than 1.0.     

Influence of polymeric fluid additives in EHL rolling/sliding line contacts

The effect of polymeric fluid additives on EHL behavior of rolling/sliding line contacts is investigated numerically at low as well as high loads. The polymer-modified oil is represented by a homogeneous mixture of Newtonian base oil and power law fluid with varying concentration, viscosity ratio and power law index. The Reynolds equation incorporating the mixed rheological fluid model is derived using perturbation method. The EHL characteristics computed for polymer-modified oils are found to depend upon the effective viscosity of the lubricant mixture which is governed by the superposition of shear thinning behavior and piezo-thickening effect of the polymeric fluid additive. Since the reference viscosity of polymeric fluid additives is much higher than that of base oil, therefore, polymer-modified oils are shown to yield thicker fluid films in most of the cases. The results show a significant variation in maximum fluid pressure and minimum fluid film thickness with the volume fraction, reference viscosity ratio and power law index of the polymeric fluid additive.     

Transient elastohydrodynamic lubrication film thickness in sliding and rolling line contacts

The contact behavior between cam and follower is greatly influenced by the kinematics and dynamics of the whole valve train system. This is the reason that both shape and thickness of the fluid film in the contact gap are mainly determined by applied loads and relative contact speeds as well as the curvatures of contacting elements. Most of the studies about lubricant film behavior between cam and follower have been performed without a consideration of transient effects in the contact gap. For the computational difficulties of transient effects, most contact conditions such as relative contacting speeds have been regarded as quasi-steady state during the whole operating cycle. In this work, in order to obtain stable convergence, a multigrid multi-level method is used for the computation of load capacity in the lubricant film. Nonlinear valve spring dynamics are also considered in the same way as Hanachi’s. From the computational results, transient EHL film thicknesses under the conditions of different contact geometries are computed for a pushrod type valve train system during an engine cycle. Several results show the squeeze film effect, which is generally not found with conventional EHL computations of the cam and follower contact. The results are also compared with those by the Dowson-Hamrock (D-H) formula, which does not consider the dynamic film effect. Without the dynamic film effect as in D-H’s formula, the minimum film thickness is highly dependent on the entraining lubricant velocity, whereas the minimum film thickness including the squeeze film effect is dependent on the applied load.     

Oil film behavior under minute vibrating conditions in EHL point contacts

The oil film thickness was measured under conditions of minute vibrations using an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) ball-on-disk test rig. Poly-alpha-olefin (PAO) oil was used as the lubricant under conditions of pure sliding where only the ball specimen was minutely vibrated. It was found that an oil film formed when the amplitude ratio was greater than 1.6. Moreover, when conditions were changed to the maximum vibrating speed, oil viscosity, and maximum contact pressure, the critical amplitude ratio at which the oil film began to form remained at 1.6. Consequently, calculated results showed that the oil film was formed when the amplitude ratio was π/2 (nearly equal to 1.6), which closely agreed with our test results.     

Thermal point contact EHL analysis of rolling/sliding contacts with experimental comparison showing anomalous film shapes

The paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of non-conformal lubricated contacts in which anomalous film shapes occur. The experiments were concerned with the contact between a steel ball and the plane surface of a glass disc at various slide-roll ratios. A paraffin base mineral oil was used as a lubricant and friction coefficients and film thicknesses were measured. It was found that for slide-roll ratios with the disk moving faster anomalous elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) films were obtained characterized by a “dimple” in the central region of the contact. Numerical thermal-elastohydrodynamic analyses were carried out to simulate both film thickness and friction corresponding to the experimental conditions using Newtonian and Ree-Eyring rheological models. Initial results from this study suggest that neither of these lubricant models predict the correct detailed film shape and the experimental friction at the same time. An alternative lubricant model including both thermal and limiting shear stress effects (wall slippage) is currently under development.     

Central film thickness formula for shear thinning lubricants in EHL point contacts under pure rolling

Based upon an extensive set of full EHL point contact simulations, this paper offers a central film thickness formula pertaining to shear-thinning lubricants with Carreau-type behavior. In order to develop a more generic and accurate version of film thickness formula, a recent work is extended by carrying out the simulations for widely varying operating loads and piezo-viscous coefficients along with the more realistic Doolittle's free volume based pressure–viscosity model. This equation is found to conform very well with the published experimental data for EHL lubricants with widely varying rheological and piezo-viscous behaviors, i.e., polyalpha olefins and polydimethyl siloxane.     

The lubricant-coating interaction in rolling and sliding contacts

The research presented in this paper was aimed at elaboration of a new technology for heavy-loaded machine elements, lubricated with ecological oils.The tribological experiments were performed using four-ball tester (scuffing resistance), cone-three balls pitting tester (fatigue life), as well as gear test rig (resistance of lubricated gears to scuffing). The tribosystems were lubricated with various base oil and vegetable-based eco-oil.The tested components were coated with standard single coatings (TiN, CrN) and low-friction coatings (a-C:H:W, MoS₂/Ti). The results obtained confirm that low-friction a-C:H:W coating has a great potential for application in heavy-loaded machine components. Under extreme-pressure conditions this coating can take over the functions of anti-wear/extreme-pressure (AW/EP) additives and through this it is possible to minimise the application of toxic lubricating additives and achieve “ecological lubrication”.     

Severe wear of rolling/sliding contacts

The wear of wheel flanges against the sides of rails is shown to be caused by rolling/sliding contacts sustaining high cyclic stresses at low slide/roll ratios. When these conditions are reproduced in the laboratory severe metallic wear is initiated when the resultant shear stress, which is dependent on both normal (pressure) and tangential (friction) forces, exceeds a critical value. The results are discussed in terms of Johnson's shakedown limit and the material's stress/strain characteristics. It is concluded that the severe wear of contacts at low slide/roll ratios is caused by high resolved cyclic stresses that result in continual plastic deformation of the surface layers.     

Inverse approach for calculating temperature in EHL of line contacts

This paper proposes a thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) inverse approach to estimate the pressure, temperature rise, and apparent viscosity distributions in an EHL line contact. Once the film shape is measured, the pressure and estimated film thickness distributions can be calculated from force balance and elastic deformation theories. By using these smoothing pressure and film thickness distributions, the Gauss-Seidel iteration is employed to calculate the temperature rise distribution from energy, surface temperature, and rheology equations. This approach overcomes the problems of pressure and temperature rise fluctuations, and generates accurate results of pressure and temperature rise distribution from a small number of measured points of film thickness, which also saves computing time. Results show that the direct inverse method requires a lot of measured points to establish the amplitude and location of the pressure and temperature rise spikes, whereas the inverse approach can obtain the accuracy results with only 31 measured points. With the error from the resolution in the film thickness measurements, this approach also presents a smooth curve of the pressure and temperature rise distributions with a small error. Furthermore, this approach still provides a good solution in apparent viscosity, whereas the direct method provides a much larger error in apparent viscosity.     

Film thickness in point contacts under generalized Newtonian EHL conditions: Numerical and experimental analysis

The current paper contributes to the understanding of the behaviour of a smooth point EHL contact with a generalized Newtonian lubricant under pure rolling. The film thickness distribution was computed using a numerical simulation with measured rheological lubricant properties. The numerical predictions, obtained solving the generalized Reynolds equation were compared with film thicknesses measured in an optical ball-on-disc device. The numerical results correctly predict the absolute film thickness and the film thickness increase with rolling speed.     

A review of thermoelastohydrodynamic lubrication in rolling and sliding contacts

This paper reviews the state of thermoelastohydrodynamic lubrication in line contacts. A comparison of the theoretical studies and correlation of the theory and experimental results are presented.     

Functional behaviour of PVD coatings under sliding and rolling stress conditions

Whereas wear-resistant PVD coatings are well established in the field of metalcutting, and the functional and tribological behaviour of these coatings is well known under such conditions, PVD coatings are used only occasionally in mechanical engineering. The reason for this seems to be the lack of information concerning the functional behaviour of these coatings in closed tribosystems. To evaluate new areas of application together with optimised coating compounds, model wear tests were performed under sliding, rolling and slip-rolling stress conditions. In addition, the test parameters, such as sliding speed, load, ambient temperature, and number of revolutions were varied, as were the coating compounds and their thicknesses. The results obtained show that friction and wear of PVD coatings are both strongly influenced by the kind of stress and the test parameters themselves. Coatings that perform well under certain test conditions can break down quickly under some other stress conditions. TiN coatings, for example, which display low friction and wear under sliding friction, fail under rolling conditions very shortly afterwards.     

Temperature rise due to sliding in rolling/sliding elastohydrodynamic lubrication line contacts: an efficient numerical analysis for contact zone temperatures

An efficient numerical method based on Lobatto quadrature analysis is adopted for a rigorous analysis of temperature in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) line contacts. Temperature distributions are calculated for maximum Hertzian pressures and rolling speeds varying between 0.5 to 2.0 GPa and 1 to 30 m/s, respectively. Significant mid-film temperature and surface temperature increases have been observed at higher rolling speeds with an increase in loads and slip ratios. Results have been compared with the results of Manton, S. M., O'Donoghue, J. P. and Cameron, A., Temperatures at lubricated rolling/sliding contacts. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1967–68, 182(417), 813–824. An empirical equation is presented for the prediction of non-dimensional maximum mid-film temperature in the contact zone in terms of the dimensionless thermal loading parameter Q, dimensionless load W and slip S, as:

     

Simplified multigrid technique for the numerical solution to the steady-state and transient EHL line contacts and the arbitrary entrainment EHL point contacts

A simplified multigrid (MG) method is developed based on that presented by Venner et al. The full approximate scheme (FAS) right-hand side of the film thickness equation is ignored and only the Gauss–Seidel iteration is employed throughout the calculating procedure. The algorithm can be used in both steady state and transient isothermal line contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) analyses and can also be extended to solve the elliptical contact problem with arbitrarily directed entrainment, with high computational efficiency and good numerical stability. A unique method is proposed to tackle the entrainment direction of the elliptical contacts.     

Assessment of the factors influencing micropitting in rolling/sliding contacts

Micropitting is currently a significant failure mechanism in carburised steel gears, but the detailed mechanisms of crack initiation and propagation are not well understood. Experiments have been carried out using a twin disc machine, according to a factorial experimental design in order to assess the influence of seven factors: material, surface finish, lubricant, load, temperature, speed and, slide-to-roll ratio. In order to minimise time, the design adopted was a fractional factorial design 2^(7-4). It has been found that load has the biggest effect on micropitting initiation whereas speed and slide-to-roll ratio have the biggest effects on micropitting propagation. Finally it is shown that micropitting is related to the phenomenon of martensite decay.     

Tribological behaviour of carbide-free bainitic steel under dry rolling/sliding conditions

The dry rolling/sliding wear behaviour of Si alloyed carbide free bainitic steel austempered at different temperatures and sliding distances has been evaluated. 60SiCr7 spring steel samples were austempered in a salt bath maintained at 250, 300 and 350 °C respectively for 1 h. Rolling with 5% sliding wear tests were performed using self mated discs for three different test cycles, namely 6000, 18,000 and 30,000 cycles. The aim was to study the wear performance of the 60SiCr7 steel with a carbide-free microstructure containing different amounts of retained austenite. An in-depth microstructural characterization has been carried out before and after the wear tests in order to link the wear behaviour to the microstructure of each sample. The wear resistance has been expressed by means of the specific wear calculated from the mass loss after the tests. The worn surfaces were analysed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Microhardness profiles were also obtained in order to analyse strain-hardening effects beneath the contact surfaces. The results indicate that the material with highest hardness—the one austempered at 250 °C—exhibited the lowest wear rate in every case. It was also observed that the hardness increment and thickness of the hardened layer increases with increasing the austempering temperature and number of test cycles. Finally, the results appear to indicate that the initial roughness of the samples has no major effect in the wear rate of the samples above 2500 cycles. The higher wear performance of the sample austempered at 250 °C has been attributed to its superior mechanical properties provided by its finer microstructure. It has been evidenced that all samples undergo the TRIP phenomenon since, after wear; no retained austenite could be detected by XRD.     

Analysis of rough line contacts operating under mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication conditions

Heavily loaded machine elements, such as gears, usually operate in the mixed lubrication regime. Surface roughness has a significant effect on the pressure distribution, the subsurface stress field, and the friction coefficient. Based on the superposition of a dry rough and a fully flooded smooth contact, a mixed lubrication model has been developed. The roughness profile is assumed to be known. Surface deformation is calculated by taking into account the pressure distribution that is built up by asperity contacts, asperity interactions, and lubricant flow. Thermal and sliding effects are incorporated into the analysis. Non‐Newtonian lubricant behaviour is considered by using a power‐law rheological model. The pressure distribution, subsurface stress field, and friction coefficient were calculated from the model at several points along the contact path for an FZG type C gear pair. It was shown that a significant part of the load is carried by the contacting asperities. The position of the maximum shear stress is very close to the surface.     

Experimental study of real roughness attenuation in rolling/sliding concentrated contacts

A surface roughness attenuation approach based on the Fourier decomposition of surface roughness into harmonic components may allow predictions of the behavior of real rough surfaces within concentrated lubricated contacts. Recent experiments performed under pure rolling conditions have shown an amplitude reduction of different components that agreed well with the data predicted by the theory. This study represents the next step in the experimental verification of the surface roughness attenuation approach under rolling-sliding conditions. Obviously, the behavior of roughness in the rolling-sliding elastohydrodynamic (EHD) contacts is more complex than for pure rolling. It has been theoretically suggested by other researchers that the modification of the original roughness alone cannot explain all of the major effects that significantly affect film thickness, and a model was proposed in which, along with the roughness attenuation, a complementary wave was generated in the inlet region and moved at the entrainment speed. This paper is focused on the possibility of extracting complementary waves from experiments with real rough surfaces conducted under rolling-sliding conditions and of determining whether the amplitudes of the complementary wave can be determined. This represents the first attempt to study both effects of rough surface behavior separately. The complementary wave was extracted from the measured data by subtracting the attenuated original roughness from the measured film thickness. Although the experimental results were quite scattered, a trend similar to that of the theoretical curves was observed. Based on the results, it can be suggested that the significance of the complementary wave is comparable to the attenuation principle.     

Alumina in unlubricated sliding point, line and plane contacts

The study is based on unlubricated sliding self-mated tests with high-grade alumina in three different contact geometries. In each contact geometry, both mild and severe wear were observed; at the normal force of 30 N that was applied on each test, the transition into severe wear occurred at a velocity specific to the geometry. The wear transition involved surface fracture caused by mechanical and thermal stresses. Part of the wear debris produced under severe wear was compacted under friction and formed smooth tribofilms on the mating surfaces. Larger contact areas allowed slightly higher sliding velocities under a given normal force. The bearing capability of alumina, however, was quite low. Alumina can be recommended only for dry sliding applications in which the load and speed safely remain below the limit for the transition from mild to severe wear.     

Scuffing behaviour of salt-bath nitrided steel in loaded lubricated sliding/rolling contacts

The modified 3 in (76.2 mm) David Brown disc machine has been used to investigate the effect on scuffing performance of grinding away various amounts from the surface of nitrided steel discs. The results revealed a systematic deterioration in scuffing resistance as the surface nitrogen concentration decreased, but quantitative correlation between these parameters was hindered by the inadequacies of electron probe X-ray microanalysis as a tool for measuring low nitrogen concentrations. It was concluded that there is no safe depth to which Tenifer-treated (salt-bath nitrided) C15 steel can be ground without impairing its scuffing performance. Other disc tests were carried out to assess the effect on scuffing of phosphate treatment and oil formulation. Results showed that, while phosphate treatment is valuable when running against untreated steel, it is of no benefit against Tenifer-treated steel. On the other hand, the formulation of the lubricant was found to improve the scuffing resistance of Tenifer-treated steel