Lubrication at point contacts

Abstract

Measurements have been made of the friction, electrical resistance, and electrical capacity between rotating steel cylinders with their axes mutually at right angles. The lubricant was a plain hydrocarbon mineral oil. Nominally the surfaces come together at a single point and the apparatus is designed to ensure that this condition is maintained even if the cylinders wear. It is shown that hydrodynamic lubrication exists over a wide range of conditions. At loads of a few kilograms it persists even when the speed falls below 1 cm/s and at higher speeds (~ 100 cm/s) it is maintained even when the load becomes large enough to cause bulk plastic flow of hardened steel. Hitherto it has been considered that only boundary lubrication could occur under these extreme conditions. At very light loads classical hydrodynamic theory applies but as the load is increased a departure from classical theory occurs because the viscosity of the oil increases under the applied pressure. At heavier loads the pressures become large enough to cause appreciable elastic deformation of the surfaces and a state of elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication is achieved. Under elasto-hydrodynamic conditions the film thickness can be deduced from the measure­ments of electrical capacity. A simplified theory of elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication at point contacts is developed, and the measured values of film thickness are in fairly good agreement with those derived from the theory. However, the variations of film thick­ness with viscosity, speed and radius of curvature forecast by the theory differ significantly from those obtained experimentally. The values of the film thickness range from 2 x 10 -6 cm to more than 1 x 10 -4 cm. The results, over the whole range, conform to a regular pattern and there is no evidence of any disturbing influence of the surface molecular fields, even with the thinnest films.