A detailed experimental study has been made of the behavior of a 100 nm high transversely oriented ridge in an elastohydrodynamic (EHD) contact. Ultra-thin film interferometry has been used to measure film profiles accurately over a very wide range of lubricant film thicknesses, from a few nanometers up to nearly one micron. This enables the recovery of the amplitude of the inlet perturbation geometry with increasing EHD film thickness to be quantified and compared with numerical predictions. In pure rolling under very thin film conditions, corresponding to a smooth surface EHD film thickness of 10 nm, the surfaces near the ridge were squashed down, leading to a constriction in the film of only about 9 percent of the height of the un-deformed ridge. As the EHD film thickness increased, this deformation recovered until the ridge constriction regained about 90 percent of its original height at film thicknesses of about 1 μm. However this relatively rapid recovery only occurred in pure rolling and is attributed to the local perturbation of film convergence which the ridge generates while in the inlet region. This propagates through the contact at the mean speed of the surfaces and—in pure rolling—acts to diminish the effect of local squeeze. When sliding was present, the ridge remained almost fully deformed even when the mean film thickness was as much as twice the height of the original ridge. In this case, the ridge travels through the contact at a different speed from the mean of the two surfaces. The consequent decoupling of the ridge and the convergence perturbation results in a large local pressure due to squeeze which acts to inhibit recovery of the ridge. The general trend of the behavior of the lubricated ridge is shown to be in good agreement with earlier theoretical results.
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April 2003
Technical Papers
Compression of a Single Transverse Ridge in a Circular Elastohydrodynamic Contact
R. P. Glovnea,
R. P. Glovnea
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
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J. W. Choo,
J. W. Choo
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
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A. V. Olver,
A. V. Olver
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
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H. A. Spikes
H. A. Spikes
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
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R. P. Glovnea
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
J. W. Choo
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
A. V. Olver
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
H. A. Spikes
Tribology Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
Contributed by the Tribology Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for presentation at the ASME/STLE Tribology Conference, Cancun, Mexico October 27–30, 2002. Manuscript received by the Tribology Division April 9, 2002 revised manuscript received July 10, 2002. Associate Editor: R. W. Snidle.
J. Tribol. Apr 2003, 125(2): 275-282 (8 pages)
Published Online: March 19, 2003
Article history
Received:
April 9, 2002
Revised:
July 10, 2002
Online:
March 19, 2003
Citation
Glovnea , R. P., Choo , J. W., Olver , A. V., and Spikes, H. A. (March 19, 2003). "Compression of a Single Transverse Ridge in a Circular Elastohydrodynamic Contact ." ASME. J. Tribol. April 2003; 125(2): 275–282. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.1506325
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