Regimes of Traction in Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication

Author(s):  
C R Evans ◽  
K L Johnson

The rheological behaviour of the lubricant in an elastohydrodynamic contact depends upon the properties of the fluid and the imposed conditions of load, speed and temperature. For a lubricant of known rheological properties, it is shown how a ‘map’ can be constructed in which different areas of the map correspond to different regimes of behaviour. The coordinates chosen for the map are non-dimensional pressure and a parameter which is closely related to the film thickness. Given the load, speed and temperature, the operating conditions can be located as a point in the map. Maps have been constructed for three fluids: a mineral oil, polyphenyl ether 5P4E and a traction fluid. In general the maps display four regimes: (a) Newtonian, (b) Eyring, (c) viscoelastic and (d) elastic-plastic. Appropriate constitutive equations are proposed for each regime from which the traction forces can be predicted. The maximum traction coefficients calculated in this way are well supported by experiment.

Author(s):  
J Lord ◽  
R Larsson

With tribology research aimed at decreasing energy consumption, two factors are inherently in focus: lubricant film thickness and traction. These factors are effectively decoupled and depend on lubricant properties which are sometimes contradictory-favourable for one factor and disadvantageous for the other. The film thickness ought to be maximized to reduce the number of asperities in contact and thus wear, whilst the traction should be minimized in order to reduce energy losses. In this experimental investigation the tested lubricants were investigated to see whether they possess beneficial properties for forming thick lubricant films under severe operating conditions while maintaining low traction forces. This is done by experimentally studying the film thickness reduction due to thermal and rheological effects for a fully flooded electrohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) contact. The base oils tested were a naphthenic mineral VG150, a synthetic poly-α-olefin VG68 and a synthetic ester VG46. It was found that the synthetic ester maintained a relatively thicker lubricant film during sliding than the poly-α-olefin and mineral oil. The film thickness reduction for the mineral oil was greater than for the poly-α-olefin.


Author(s):  
C R Evans ◽  
K L Johnson

The methods of measuring the rheological properties of EHD lubricants are reviewed, but for pressures in excess of 1.0 GPa there is currently no simple alternative to the disc machine. A technique has been developed which enables disc machine traction tests to be carried out at constant mean film temperature. Isothermal tests provide further evidence for the existence of a limiting shear stress τc at which the fluid shears in the manner of a plastic solid. At stresses below this limit the experimental data are found to be in very good accord with the non-linear Maxwell rheological model based on the Eyring theory of fluid flow proposed by Johnson and Tevaarwerk and by Hirst and Moore. The model incorporates three fluid properties: shear modulus G, viscosity τ and Eyring stress τ0. Disc machine measurements of τ, τ0 and the limiting shear stress τc for three fluids—a mineral oil HVI 650, a synthetic polyphenyl ether 5P4E and a traction fluid Santotrac 50—are presented for a range of pressures (0.6–2.5 GPa) and temperatures (40–120°C).


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Pu ◽  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Jiaxu Wang

In this study, a modified mixed lubrication model is developed with consideration of machined surface roughness, arbitrary entraining velocity angle, starvation, and cavitation. Model validation is executed by means of comparison between the obtained numerical results and the available starved elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) data found from some previous studies. A comprehensive analysis for the effect of inlet oil supply condition on starvation and cavitation, mixed EHL characteristics, friction and flash temperature in elliptical contacts is conducted in a wide range of operating conditions. In addition, the influence of roughness orientation on film thickness and friction is discussed under different starved lubrication conditions. Obtained results reveal that inlet starvation leads to an obvious reduction of average film thickness and an increase in interasperity cavitation area due to surface roughness, which results in significant increment of asperity contacts, friction, and flash temperature. Besides, the effect of entrainment angle on film thickness will be weakened if the two surfaces operate under starved lubrication condition. Furthermore, the results show that the transverse roughness may yield thicker EHL films and lower friction than the isotropic and longitudinal if starvation is taken into account. Therefore, the starved mixed EHL model can be considered as a useful engineering tool for industrial applications.


Author(s):  
A. D. Chapkov ◽  
C. H. Venner ◽  
A. A. Lubrecht

The influence of surface roughness on the performance of bearings and gears operating under ElastoHydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL) conditions has become increasingly important over the last decade, as the average film thickness decreased due to various influences. Surface features can reduce the minimum film thickness and thus increase the wear. They can also increase the temperature and the pressure fluctuations, which directly affects the component life. In order to describe the roughness geometry inside an EHL contact, the amplitude reduction of harmonic waviness has been studied over the last ten years. This theory currently allows a quantitative prediction of the waviness amplitude and includes the influence of wavelength and contact operating conditions. However, the model assumes a Newtonian behaviour of the lubricant. The current paper makes a first contribution to the extension of the roughness amplitude reduction for EHL point contacts including non-Newtonian effects.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Q. Jane Wang

Effect of roughness orientation on lubricant film thickness has been an important issue of surface design, attracting much attention since the 1970 s. A systematical study, however, is still needed for various contact types in an extended range of operating conditions, especially in mixed lubrication cases with film thickness to roughness ratio (λ ratio) smaller than 0.5. The present study employs a deterministic mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model to investigate the performance of lubricating films in different types of contact geometry, including the line contact, circular contact, and elliptical contacts of various ellipticity ratios. The speed range for analyzed cases covers 11 orders of magnitude so that the entire transition from full-film and mixed EHL down to dry contact (corresponding λ ratio from about 3.5 down to 0.001 or so) is simulated. Three types of machined surfaces are used, representing transverse, longitudinal, and isotropic roughness, respectively. The line contact results are compared with those from the stochastic models by Patir and Cheng (“Effect of Surface Roughness Orientation on the Central Film Thickness in EHD Contacts,” Proc. 5th Leeds-Lyon Symp. on Tribol., 1978, pp. 15–21) and the influence of roughness orientation predicted by the deterministic model is found to be less significant than that by the stochastic models, although the basic trends are about the same when λ > 0.5. The orientation effect for circular or elliptical contact problems appears to be more complicated than that for line contacts due to the existence of significant lateral flows. In circular contacts, or elliptical contacts with the ellipticity ratio smaller than one, the longitudinal roughness may become more favorable than the isotropic and transverse. Overall, the orientation effect is significant in the mixed EHL regime where theλratio is roughly in the range from 0.05 to 1.0. It is relatively insignificant for both the full-film EHL (λ > 1.2 or so) and the boundary lubrication/dry contact (λ < 0.025 ∼ 0.05).


1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilmos Simon

The full thermal elastohydrodynamic analysis of the lubrication of rider rings is presented. A numerical solution of the coupled Reynolds, elasticity, energy, and Laplace’s equations for the oil film thickness, pressure, and temperature and rider rings temperatures is obtained. The temperature variation across the oil film is included. The real rider ring geometry is treated. The effect of the operating conditions on the performance characteristics is discussed.


Author(s):  
C J Hooke

The elastohydrodynamic lubrication of point contacts is examined and results for the minimum film thickness are presented for a wide range of radius ratios and operating conditions. The results are compared with the predictions of the appropriate regime formulae. Although these formulae give a reasonable estimate of the contact's behaviour, the actual clearances are often substantially different, particularly close to the regime boundaries. Interpolation equations for seven values of radius ratio are given and these should be sufficient to allow the minimum clearance to be estimated for most isoviscous point contacts.


Author(s):  
R J Chittenden ◽  
D Dowson ◽  
C M Taylor

The existence of a coherent film of lubricant between highly loaded machine elements has been recognized for many years. Over this period of time measurements of film thickness have gone hand in hand with theoretical analyses in the field now known as elastohydrodynamic lubrication. The experimental techniques of capacitance, electrical resistance and X-ray measurement have been supplemented by the use of optical interferometry while the analytical expressions obtained with the use of elegant simplifications have been superseded by those developed from extensive and comprehensive computational procedures. These developments in experimental techniques have yielded a substantial number of measurements of both minimum and central film thickness. Likewise, the advent of the digital computer has allowed the derivation of a large number of solutions to the problem of elastohydrodynamic lubrication of concentrated contacts. All these results, covering a wide range of geometrical conditions, are to be found in the literature, yet little attempt appears to have been made to assemble a representative set of experimental data to permit a detailed evaluation of the theoretical formulae for elliptical contacts. The second part of this paper therefore considers the correlation between a number of experimental studies covering a wide range of operating conditions and geometries, and the predictions of recent elastohydrodynamic theory. Some of the important aspects of each set of experimental results are then considered and examples are provided which illustrate the following points: 1. Good estimates of lubricant film thickness may be obtained from the theoretical expressions recently derived, even when the dimensionless parameters involved are outside the ranges considered in the derivation of the formulae. 2. The discrepancies which exist between theoretical predictions and some of the measured film thicknesses are nevertheless quite large, even when the dimensionless parameters are within their usual limits. On the whole there is good agreement between experiment and theory, while the general trend of the results indicates that theoretical predictions may underestimate the minimum film thickness by about 10 per cent and the central film thickness by about 25 per cent. This measure of agreement is quite remarkable when the extreme difficulty of interpreting the magnitudes of effective and very thin mean film thicknesses between machined components in various forms of experimental equipment is considered.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Chang ◽  
M. N. Webster

This paper reports some results of rough-surface, elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHD) contacts obtained using a previously developed transient EHD model. The surface roughness is modeled with sinusoidal functions of small wavelength compared to the contact zone. Results are presented showing how the operating conditions affect the film thickness, micro-deformation of the roughness, and the pressure perturbations due to motion and interaction of roughness within the contact. This preliminary work suggests that the entraining velocity and the slide-to-roll ratio are the most sensitive parameters influencing the lubrication process of rough-surface EHD contacts.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. P. Evans ◽  
R. W. Snidle

The paper describes an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) analysis of heavily loaded contacts between the teeth of Wildhaber-Novikov (W-N) circular arc gears. The contacts occurring in gears of this type are elliptical in shape with lubricant entrainment in the direction of the major axis of the contact. The results shown refer to a particular practical design and cover a range of operating conditions encountered in practice. Because of the high rolling velocity in W-N gears a relatively thick oil film is predicted over most of the contact. Severe thinning of the film occurs at the sides of the contact, however. Results of the full EHL analysis are compared with predictions using a published film thickness formula based upon analysis of moderately loaded elliptical contacts. It is suggested that the side-thinning effect is dependent upon the relative elastic deformation occurring in the contact.


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