Evidence of lubricant slip on steel surface in EHL contact

The limiting traction provided by typical elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHL) contacts leads to the postulation that liquid lubricants are subject to limiting shear stress, which is generally accepted as an intrinsic property of the lubricants. The results of recent optical EHL research show that lubricant at EHL contacts may slip on the Cr-coated glass surface under certain circumstances. This paper presents further evidence that high pressure EHL film can slip on a steel surface. Because the steel/steel contacts are common in typical traction drives and the interfaces are therefore oil/steel, the deduction of the limiting shear stress of lubricants from the measured limiting traction may simply reflect a property of the system should boundary slippage occur.     

Occurrence of Wall Slip in Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Contacts

Preliminary experimental work has been carried out to identify some of the boundary slip phenomena of highly pressurised polybutenes in an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) conjunction. The movement of the oil is signified using an entrapment that can be readily formed by the impact of a steel ball against a layer of oil on a glass block in an optical EHL test apparatus. The post-impact lateral movement of the entrapment was investigated under the conditions: (i) pure rolling, (ii) pure glass block sliding (steel ball stationary) and (iii) pure ball sliding (glass block stationary). It was observed that under pure rolling the entrapped oil travels within the contact region at the entrainment speed, which is correlated with EHL theory. Under pure glass block sliding conditions, the speed of the entrapped oil core is less than the entrainment speed, and in the extreme cases, this core can be nearly stationary. Under pure ball sliding conditions, the oil core moves at a speed greater than the entrainment speed. The observation indicates that the oil/steel ball interface can sustain higher shear stress than the oil/glass (chromium coated) interface and there is a boundary slip in terms of relative sliding at the latter interface under the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the amount of slip increases with an increase in the pressure. These experiments provide evidence of the existence of wall slippage, which leads to the abnormal EHL film profile characterised with an inlet dimple as reported earlier.     

A non-averaging method of determining the rheological properties of traction fluids

Traction machines have been frequently used to study the rheological responses of lubricants in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) contacts. Fundamental properties are inferred from EHL traction measurements based on the average pressures and temperatures in the contact. This average approach leads to uncertainty in the accuracy of the results due to the highly nonlinear resonse of the fluid such as viscosity to both pressure and temperature. A non-averaging method is developed in this paper to study the elastic and plastic properties of traction fluids operating in EHL contacts at small slide-to-roll ratios. A precision line-contact traction rig is used to measure the EHL traction at a given oil temperature and Hertz pressure. By choosing a sensible pressure-property expression, the parameters of the expression can be determined through the initial slope and peak traction coefficient of the traction measurements. The elastic shear modulus and the limiting shear stress of the lubricant corresponding to a single pressure can then be calculated for a range of pressures and temperatures of practical interest. Two high-traction fluids are studied, and their elastic moduli and limiting shear stresses presented.     

Effects of thermally induced inhomogeneous shear and surface thermal boundary conditions on the shear stress in sliding elastohydrodynamic contacts

Numerous research work has shown that significant thermally induced cross‐film inhomogeneous shear or thermal shear localisation may be developed in sliding elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) contacts with pronounced consequences. This paper uses the theoretical framework established in previous research to further analyse the effects of the shear localisation on the lubricant shear stress and thus the EHL traction. Results obtained suggest that the shear localisation significantly accelerates the thermally induced reduction of the shear stress in sliding EHL contacts. The study also shows dramatic reduction of the shear stress in EHL contacts with one‐insolated surface, which is significantly attributed to the more intensified thermal shear localisation near the insolated surface. The practical significance of the dramatic shear stress reduction is discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

零卷吸预跑合对一类反常弹流油膜的影响

在极低速纯滑动的光弹流实验中,采用高粘度聚丁烯润滑剂形成的弹流油膜会在入口区出现凹陷,该反常的入口凹陷与极限剪切应力/界面滑移有关。针对盘纯滑和球纯滑2种不同的运动条件进行了油膜形状的测量,分析了零卷吸预跑合对油膜形状的影响。结果表明,一般地,纯玻璃盘滑动和纯钢球滑动产生的此类反常的油膜形状并不相同;当对弹流接触副采用零卷吸预跑合处理(即钢球和玻璃盘在接触区以大小相同方向相反的速度运动)之后,纯玻璃盘滑动形成的油膜形状有较大变化,油膜厚度增加,入口的楔形斜度下降,此时纯玻璃盘滑动和纯钢球滑动产生的油膜形状差别减小,甚至相同。     

极限剪切状态下的线接触Reynolds方程

本文导出了考虑极限剪切状态的线接触流变热弹流Reynolds方程,该方程以Evans—Johnson流变模型为基础,可用于求解线接触流变热弹流润滑问题的油膜厚度、压力分布、剪应力分布和牵曳系数曲线。计算实例表明,润滑油的流变特性对弹流润滑的油膜形状和压力分布影响不大,但对Hertz接触区的剪应力分布有显著影响。     

EHL Performance of the Lubricant With Shear Strength: Part I — Boundary Slippage and Film Failure

This paper analytically investigates the isothermal line contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication of three lubricants with much different shear strengths under the nondimensional operating parameters of w = 2.15e-4 and U = 2.53e-10 applying the lubricant ideal viscoplastic rheological model. The boundary slippage of the low-shear-strength lubricant occurring in the EHL inlet zone was found and results in a much thinner film compared to the classical EHL theory prediction. The film boundary slippage and its growth with the slide/roll ratio variation of tile low-shear\- strength lubricant exhibit special phenomena, which are much different from those of the high-shear-strength lubricant. The easy occurrence of film failure in concentrated contact in the case of high sliding speed, heavy load, large slide/roll ratio, and low-shear-strength lubricant was concluded due to the severe friction heating on the surface conjunction and the lubricant thermal desorption on tile lubricant/surface boundary. The EHL film failure mechanism was further recognized.     

Non-classical Elastohydrodynamic Lubricating Film Shape Under Large Slide-roll Ratios

The authors showed in previous experiments with high viscosity polymeric lubricants that a non-classical elastohydrodynamic (EHL) film, which featured an inlet dimple, could be generated under pure sliding conditions. The phenomenon was tentatively attributed to boundary slippage. In this paper, much greater sliding is introduced in the experiments to gain further insight into film formation under boundary slippage. By putting all of the results on a load versus entrainment speed chart, it is found that the required conditions for the formation of the inlet dimple fall into an open triangular region in the chart. The existence of the inlet dimple can be maintained for a larger speed range with a higher load. The minimum speed required (the lower speed bound for the dimple existence) decreases only marginally with an increase in load but the speed of the disappearance of the dimple (the upper speed bound) increases with an increasing load. Interferograms show that with an increase in the slide-roll ratio, i.e., expanded boundary slippage, a bump occurs before the exit constriction, which indicates an obvious drop in film thickness, and the location of the minimum film thickness in the whole EHL contact moves from the outlet constriction to the center of the bump. The observed inlet dimple and bump have already been described in the previous numerical results that consider boundary slippage, and provide more justification for the boundary slippage postulation in the experimental films.     

Evidence of Plug Flow in Rolling–Sliding Elastohydrodynamic Contact

The existence of shear bands, boundary slippage or shear localization was observed several times by various researchers. At the same time, the concept of limiting shear stress is almost exclusively used for traction modeling without clear explanation of physical phenomena that it is associated with. Despite it, the classic linear distribution of speed through-film profile is often considered in current numerical analyses and in our thinking about experimental results. It seems there is a small effort to unify our approaches to meet general concept that can explain a wide range of phenomena. This paper presents experimental results that point out on irregular distribution of through-film speed profile. The observations show an existence of cohesive core of entrainment speed surrounded by two shear zones located closely to the surfaces. This result represents experimental evidence for plug flow mechanism in highly loaded rolling–sliding elastohydrodynamic contact. Possible mechanisms of shear localization are discussed.     

Lubricant oils additivated with polymers in EHD contacts: Part 1. Rheological behaviour

This paper reports on the influence of a polymer additive on the traction behaviour of a mineral oil investigated using a two‐disc machine at different temperatures and contact pressures. A semi‐empirical approach was used for determining the effective lubricant rheological parameters ‐ the elastic shear modulus, the viscosity of the lubricant, and the limiting and Eyring stresses ‐ in elastohydrodynamic contacts. Using this approach, the effect of polymer concentration on the rheological parameters that appear in both the Johnson‐Tevaarwerk and Bair‐Winer models was quantified. The influence of operating conditions, such as pressure, oil temperature, and polymer concentration, on the traction coefficient, limiting shear stress (from the Bair‐Winer model), Eyring stress (from the Johnson‐Tevaarwerk model), shear modulus, and apparent viscosity was also investigated.     

Stress Analysis on Layered Materials in Point Elastohydrodynamic-Lubricated Contacts

For multilayered or coated substrates in elastohydrodynamic-lubricated (EHL) contacts, the subsurface stress distributions under a normal load combined with shear traction have been analyzed in this article through computer simulations. The Papkovich-Neuber potentials and Fourier transform are adopted to deduce the pressure–displacement, pressure–stress, and shear traction–stress response functions in frequency domain for the coated substrates, and to calculate distributions of pressure and subsurface stress. The results from the analysis of EHL contacts on coated substrates are compared with those from dry contact model in which shear traction is assumed to obey Coulomb’s law. Effects of the Young’s modulus of coatings, the properties of lubricants, and the magnitude of traction are discussed. Similar to the results in dry contacts, hard coatings in lubricated cases tend to increase the von Mises stress, whereas soft coatings decrease the stress. Shear traction makes the max von Mises stress increasing and moving closer to surface. However, the changes in subsurface stress due to shear traction are less obvious in lubricated contacts. Comparison between EHL and dry contact models reveals that lubrication can reduce the von Mises stress in the coating layer due to smaller shear traction. The analyses show that pressure, film thickness, and subsurface stress distributions are influenced by surface coatings, sliding velocity, rheological models, and pressure–viscosity behaviors.     

Effect of Starvation on Traction and Film Thickness in Thermo-EHL Line Contacts with Shear-Thinning Lubricants

The effect of starvation on traction and film thickness behavior in thermo-EHL rolling/sliding line contacts has been studied using full EHL simulations. The simulations employed the free volume equation for viscosity–pressure–temperature relationship and Carreau viscosity model to describe the shear-thinning behavior of the EHL lubricant. The simulation results were used to develop equations for estimating the factors by which the traction coefficient increases and film thickness decreases as a function of the degree of starvation. For the situations involving inadequate lubricant supply at the inlet, these factors can be used to correct the traction coefficient and central film thickness predicted with the assumption of fully flooded condition.     

A novel approach to measure slip-length of thin lubricant films under high pressures

Abundant evidence of boundary slip at liquid/solid interfaces has been presented by experiments and theoretical analyses. Recent research reveals that the boundary slip effect of lubricants can be obvious in small confined gaps, even with simple Newtonian fluids. Therefore, it is appropriate to ask if there is boundary slip of thin highly pressurized lubricant films in EHL contacts, and, if so, how to quantify it. This paper proposes a method for measuring the slip-length of lubricant films within a small gap under high pressure. Measurement principles have been addressed in details in the paper. The idea makes use of the phenomenon whereby a tiny quantity of lubricant can be entrapped and forms a dimple film by impacting a steel ball against a lubricated glass plate. The slip-length can be extracted from the relative movement of the dimple against the solid surfaces. Case experiments are also presented to validate the feasibility of the method.     

Experimental observation of a dimple-wedge elastohydrodynamic lubricating film

One of the main features of typical elastohydrodynamic lubricating (EHL) contacts is the unique horseshoe film shape, which can be readily observed by using interferometry and quite accurately modelled by the well-established EHL theory. However, an anomalous EHL film, characterized by a wedge shape together with a tiny dimple at the inlet region, is observed under pure sliding conditions with ultra slow speeds of 3–800 μm/s in an optical EHL test rig. The variations of the wedge and the inlet dimple with different sliding speeds and loads are investigated using a series of polybutene oils of high viscosities. It is found that the inclination of the wedge is dependent on sliding speeds, loads and oil viscosities. The dimple always occurs at the inlet. The appearance of an inlet dimple together with a wedge film shape is reported for the first time. The phenomenon can be attributed to a non-Newtonian characteristic of the lubricant: the limiting shear strength. Additionally, the influence of starvation on the film shape is also examined.     

CONSTITUTIVE EQUATION OF A NEW AVIATION LUBRICATING OIL

The traction of a new aviation lubricating oil was measured on a self-made test rig. The calculating formulae of the rheological parameters of the oil such as Erying stress, limiting shear stress and shear elastic modulus were obtained under the condition of the high shear strain rate in elastohydrodynamic lubrication(EHL). The constitutive equation of this oil was determined and verified by test The results of experiments show that the behavior of the new aviation lubricating oil behaves as visco-elastic fluid and the theoretical value agrees fairly well with the measured data, which implies that the constitutive equation of this oil is correct and feasible.     

滑动条件下弹流润滑启动过程的实验观察

使用光干涉动态油膜厚度测量系统对不同启动条件下聚丁烯润滑油弹流油膜的形成过程进行了实验观测。结果表明,在纯滑动条件下,由于界面滑移弹流油膜存在反常的入口凹陷;卷吸速度相等时,较大的启动加速度产生较大的界面滑移,诱发较大的入口凹陷;不同的启动加速度,入口区的油膜形状和最小油膜厚度的变化也不相同。     

A simple non-linear constitutive equation for elastohydrodynamic oil films

In this paper a hypothetical constitutive relation for EHL oil films is proposed which combines a linear elastic response with a non-linear shear thinning viscous response. This model reduces to a linear Maxwell fluid for small strains. It is shown that provided the recoverable elastic strains are kept small (<0.3), which is generally the case for EHL contacts, the ambiguity of stress rate usually encountered with large total strains in viscoelasticity can be avoided. Hence this proposed constitutive law provides a simple Theologically acceptable basis for interpreting large strain EHD traction experiments.     

Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication with Oil Droplets

In oil–air lubrication, lubricants are supplied in the form of oil droplets to tribo-pairs. Numerical work has been carried out to investigate transient EHL characteristics when a series of oil droplets are entrained along the center line of the contact zone. Results show that the spacing distance between oil droplets is an important parameter for continuous EHL film formation. For oil droplets with the same volume, the effective lubrication time increases first and then decreases as the droplet distance increases. An optimum droplet distance can be found for the maximum effective lubrication time with continuous EHL films. Moreover, entrainment speed, lubricant viscosity and oil/solid interface can also affect the effective lubrication time significantly and change the optimum droplet distance accordingly. Numerical results showed a close correlation to the experiments. This study is useful to basic understanding of lubrication by limited lubricant supply.     

Calculation of sliding power loss in spur gear contacts

An engineering-level calculation model for sliding power loss in spur gear contacts is presented. Teeth contact through the line of action is modelled as a constantly changing roller contact whose radius, speed, and load can be calculated from the gear geometry under the given operating conditions. The gear mesh cycle is approximated by a large number of elastohydrodynamic contacts. A constant film thickness and a Hertzian pressure distribution are assumed in each contact. The model includes non-Newtonian lubricant behaviour together with temperature and mixed lubrication effects in contact. The numerical solver is reasonably fast in evaluating effectively the sliding power loss dependence on the essential gear and lubricant parameters. The features and behaviour trends of the calculated sliding power losses have a close similarity with published results obtained from measurements and experiment-based power loss models with mineral oil. The limiting shear stress of the lubricant is observed to have an essential role in the power loss behaviour especially at high loads.