Nano-lubricant film formation due to combined elastohydrodynamic and surface force action under isothermal conditions

Abstract

This paper presents the results of numerical prediction of the lubricant film thickness and pressure distribution in concentrated counterformal point contact under isothermal conditions. The operating conditions, which include load and speed of entraining motion, promote the formation of ultra-thin films; these are formed under the combined action of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL), the surface contact force of solvation and molecular interactions due to the presence of Van der Waals forces. A numerical solution has been carried out, using the low-relaxation Newton-Raphson iteration technique, applied to the convergence of the hydrodynamic pressure. The paper shows that the effect of surface forces become significant as the elastic film (i.e. the gap) is reduced to a few nanometres. The numerical predictions have been shown to conform well to the numerical work and experimental findings of other research workers.