Polymer Lubrication: Pressure–Viscosity–Temperature Dependence of Film Thickness for Highly Loaded Compliant Contacts in Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Regime

Abstract

Abstract The relevance of the compliant contacts operated in elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime has increased during the last decades. Polymers and elastomers have been preferred because of their low-cost production or their tribological performance in many mechanical and bioengineering applications, where the metals originally dominated. Especially, in high-performance applications, such as polymer gears, the current subject of interest covers the transition between Piezoviscous-elastic and Isoviscous-elastic regimes of elastohydrodynamic lubrication. Here, it is necessary to precisely determine operating conditions and lubricant properties such as rheology whose contribution to film thickness formation may be influenced by attributes of individual lubrication regimes. The high-pressure viscosimeter and the optical tribometer were used, the former to establish the pressure–viscosity–temperature relationship of two reference lubricants, natural Squalane and synthetic tri(2-ethylhexyl) trimellitate, and the latter to determine the central and minimum film thickness in the circular contact between the PMMA disc and the steel ball using the optical chromatic interferometry method. Experimental results of film thickness demonstrated a significant deviation from the soft elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) models, independently of the lubricant used, load, entrainment speed, and temperature because the pressure–viscosity–temperature response of lubricant was not included. Due to this, film thickness data were regressed, and new power coefficients of dimensionless parameter G¯ were derived. Outcomes confirmed the operation of the compliant circular contact in the transition region between the Piezoviscous-elastic and Isoviscous-elastic regimes with the minimum film thickness identified on the side lobes of the horseshoe shape.