scholarly journals Impact of chosen force fields and applied load on thin film lubrication

Friction ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi D. Ta ◽  
Hien D. Ta ◽  
Kiet A. Tieu ◽  
Bach H. Tran

AbstractThe rapid development of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, as well as classical and reactive atomic potentials, has enabled tribologists to gain new insights into lubrication performance at the fundamental level. However, the impact of adopted potentials on the rheological properties and tribological performance of hydrocarbons has not been researched adequately. This extensive study analyzed the effects of surface structure, applied load, and force field (FF) on the thin film lubrication of hexadecane. The lubricant film became more solid-like as the applied load increased. In particular, with increasing applied load, there was an increase in the velocity slip, shear viscosity, and friction. The degree of ordering structure also changed with the applied load but rather insignificantly. It was also significantly dependent on the surface structure. The chosen FFs significantly influenced the lubrication performance, rheological properties, and molecular structure. The adaptive intermolecular reactive empirical bond order (AIREBO) potential resulted in more significant liquid-like behaviors, and the smallest velocity slip, degree of ordering structure, and shear stress were compared using the optimized potential for liquid simulations of united atoms (OPLS-UAs), condensed-phase optimized molecular potential for atomic simulation studies (COMPASS), and ReaxFF. Generally, classical potentials, such as OPLS-UA and COMPASS, exhibit more solid-like behavior than reactive potentials do. Furthermore, owing to the solid-like behavior, the lubricant temperatures obtained from OPLS-UA and COMPASS were much lower than those obtained from AIREBO and ReaxFF. The increase in shear stress, as well as the decrease in velocity slip with an increase in the surface potential parameter ζ, remained conserved for all chosen FFs, thus indicating that the proposed surface potential parameter ζ for the COMPASS FF can be verified for a wide range of atomic models.

1965 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 735-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Tamai ◽  
B. G. Rightmire

Experimental work was carried out on the boundary lubrication of a copper-copper couple with pure cetane, palmitic acid solution of cetane, and some other organic materials. The purpose was to get information about α and μlube, which appear in the friction equation: μ=αμsolid+(1−α)μlube, by using two different kinds of copper surface, a clean surface, and an oxidized surface. α was found to be small with palmitic acid solution, and the estimated shear strength of palmitic acid was high under the examined condition. α and μlube seemed to be properties which are independent of each other. α is closely related to the attraction force between the lubricant and the substrate, whereas μlube is related to the complexity of molecular structure of the lubricant. A comparison was made of bulk-liquid and thin-film lubrication. μlube was smaller in thin-film lubrication than it was in bulk-liquid lubrication. This suggests that the frictional resistance may be partly contributed by liquid in the edge space around the real contact.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Hsiang Cheng ◽  
Mei-Hsia Chang

The optimization of the surface shape for a slider to meet the specified load demands under an ultra-thin film lubrication condition has been performed in this study. The optimization process is developed based on the conjugate gradient method in conjunction with a direct problem solver, which is built based on the rarefied-flow theory. The direct problem solver is able to predict the pressure distributions of the rarefied gas flows in the slip-flow, transition-flow, and molecular-flow regimes with a wide range of characteristic inverse Knudsen number. First, the validity of the direct problem solver has been verified by a comparison with the existing information for some particular cases, and then the developed direct problem solver is incorporated with the conjugate gradient method for optimizing the shape profile of the slider surface. The performance of the present optimization approach has also been evaluated. Results show that the shape profile of the slider surface can be efficiently optimized by using the present approach. Thus, a number of cases under various combinations of influential parameters, involving the characteristic inverse Knudsen number and the bearing numbers in the x- and y-directions, are investigated.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaohui Zhang ◽  
Jianbin Luo ◽  
Shizhu Wen

In this paper, a viscosity modification model is developed which can be applied to describe the thin film lubrication problems. The viscosity distribution along the direction normal to solid surface is approached by a function proposed in this paper. Based on the formula, lubricating problem of thin film lubrication (TFL) in isothermal and incompressible condition is solved and the outcome is compared to the experimental data. In thin film lubrication, according to the computation outcomes, the lubrication film thickness is much greater than that in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL). When the velocity is adequately low (i.e., film thickness is thin enough), the pressure distribution in the contact area is close to Hertzian distribution in which the second ridge of pressure is not obvious enough. The film shape demonstrates the earlobe-like form in thin film lubrication, which is similar to EHL while the film is comparatively thicker. The transformation relationships between film thickness and loads, velocities or atmosphere viscosity in thin film lubrication differ from those in EHL so that the transition from thin film lubrication to EHL can be clearly seen.


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