Experimental comparison of the behavior between base oil and grease starvation based on inlet film thickness

This paper deals with the experimental study of an elastohydrodynamic contact under conditions of insufficient lubricant supply. Starvation level of this type of the contact may be experimentally determined based on the position of the meniscus, but this way can't determine all levels of starvation. Consequent development in the field of tribology achieved theoretical model that can determine all levels of starvation by dependency on the thickness of the lubricant film entering the contact, but it is difficult for experimental verification. The main goal of this work is an experimental study and description of the behavior of the elastohydrodynamic contact with controlled thickness of the lubricant film at the contact input. Contact was lubricated by the base oil and the grease and compared. Results were surprising because the only differences between oil and grease were observed for more viscous lubricants at thicker film layer entering to the contact. © 2017 Published by Faculty of Engineering Corresponding author:

[1]  N. Technical.  OPTICAL ANALYSIS OF BALL BEARING STARVATION , 1970 .

[2]  D. Dowson,et al.  Isothermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Point Contacts: Part 1—Theoretical Formulation , 1975 .

[3]  A. Cameron,et al.  A mechanism of fluid replenishment in elastohydrodynamic contacts , 1976 .

[4]  D. Dowson,et al.  Isothermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Point Contacts: Part III—Fully Flooded Results , 1976 .

[5]  Hugh Spikes,et al.  A study of parched lubrication , 1992 .

[6]  Henrik Åström,et al.  Lubricating Grease Replenishment in an Elastohydrodynamic Point Contact , 1993 .

[7]  G. Dalmaz,et al.  Starvation Phenomena in E.H.L. Point Contacts: Influence of Inlet Flow Distribution. , 1996 .

[8]  Antonius Lubrecht,et al.  An Analysis of Track Replenishment Mechanisms in the Starved Regime , 1999 .

[9]  Philippa Cann,et al.  Starved Grease Lubrication of Rolling Contacts , 1999 .

[10]  Jérôme Molimard,et al.  Thin Film Colorimetric Interferometry , 2001 .

[11]  A. ADoefaa,et al.  ? ? ? ? f ? ? ? ? ? , 2003 .

[12]  Antonius Lubrecht,et al.  The transition between fully flooded and starved regimes in EHL , 2004 .

[13]  A. Lubrecht,et al.  Starved Lubrication of Elliptical EHD Contacts , 2004 .

[14]  Martin Hartl,et al.  Experimental study of starved EHL contacts based on thickness of oil layer in the contact inlet , 2013 .

[15]  Martin Hartl,et al.  Experimental Observation of Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Contacts Replenishment , 2015 .

[16]  Martin Hartl,et al.  Lubricant Rupture Ratio at Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Contact Outlet , 2015, Tribology Letters.

[17]  New Universal Tribometer as Pin or Ball on Disc and Reciprocating Pin on Plate Types , 2016 .

[18]  Martin Hartl,et al.  Influence of Lubricant Inlet Film Thickness on Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Contact Starvation , 2017 .