Traction behaviour of elastohydrodynamic lubrication films with anomalous shapes

This study describes traction behaviours of lubricant films having anomalous shapes under elastohydrodynamic lubrication conditions. The traction generated at a point contact area between a glass or sapphire disc and a steel ball was measured by changing the slide-to-roll ratio. Three alcohols, 1-dodecanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol, and two alkanes of n-tetradecane and n-hexadecane were used as lubricants. Lubricants developing anomalous film shapes exhibited a solid-like behaviour with a sharp traction peak at low slide-to-roll ratios. On the contrary, other lubricants having conventional film shapes indicated a gradual increase in traction coefficient with increasing slide-to-roll ratios. The similarity of the traction behaviour to that of traction fluids supports the solidification of the film, which developed anomalous film shapes.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMIZATION OF ТHERMOHYDROCHEMICAL TREATMENT OF HARD ALLOY IN THE HYDROSOL OF SILVER GRAPHITE

The results examination of the tribotechnical properties for solid lubricant coatings, obtained on hard alloy ВК6 (94 %WC+6 %Co) by thermo-hydrochemical treatment (THCT) in a hydrosol based on silver graphite, are presented. The multidimensional technological optimization of the medium composition and the temperature-time parameters of the process was performed for the friction coefficient of the obtained solid lubricant films. The diagrams “property vs. process parameters” were plotted using the obtained mathematical expressions. Treatment with optimal regime permits decreasing the friction coefficient of the hard alloy surface in 3,5 as compared with untreated.

On Waviness and Two-Sided Surface Features in Thermal Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Line Contacts

Machine components are designed to endure increasingly severe operating conditions due to the strive for improved energy efficiency of mechanical systems. Consequently, lubricated non-conformal contacts must rely on thin lubricant films where the influence of surface topography on the lubricating conditions becomes significant. Due to the complexity of the multiphysical problem, approximate assumptions are often employed to facilitate numerical studies of elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHL) contacts. In this work, the rough, time dependent, thermal EHL problem is solved with focus on two main analyses. The first analysis focuses on the influence of sinusoidal roughness and the difference between a thermal non-Newtonian approach and an isothermal Newtonian approach. The second analysis is focused on the lubricating mechanisms taking place when two-sided surface features overtake within the thermal EHL contact. The results indicate that the film thickness in the outlet of the contact may be significantly overestimated by an isothermal Newtonian approach and that differences in the high-pressure region may also occur due to viscosity variations in the inlet of the contact. Moreover, for the studied two-sided surface features, it became evident that not only the surface feature combination but also the overtaking position influence the film thickness and pressure variations significantly.