FLUID FILM LUBRICATION

Reproduced mainly from

Introduction to Tribology by
Bharat Bhushan

Gas-Lubricated Bearings
Kingsbury (1897). The gas is generally air.

This avoids the need for a liquid lubrication system, simplifies the bearing design, and reduces maintenance.
Gas bearings are also called aerodynamic or self-acting gas bearings.

Applications
Gyroscopes where precision and constant torque are required, Machine tool spindles, Turbomachinery Dental drills Food Textile machinery and Tape and disk drives as part of magnetic storage devices

 The gas is compressible and the change in density as a function of pressure cannot be neglected in the solution of Reynolds equation. Due to low viscosity of gas, the film thickness, pressures, and load capacities of gas bearings, which are proportional to the fluid viscosity, are much lower than with a liquid.

 The frictional force is reduced in roughly the same proportion; therefore, the value of friction force is very low.

However, the coefficient of friction is comparable to that of liquid bearings. Since the energy dissipated by friction losses is low, the temperature rise is low in the gas bearings

Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL)

EHL is a subset of HD lubrication

Elastic deformation of the contacting solids plays a significant role

The film thickness in EHD lubrication is thinner (typically 0.5 -5 um)

In isolated areas, asperities may actually touch.

Therefore, in liquid lubricated systems, boundary lubricants that provide boundary films on the surfaces for protection against any solid solid contact are used. Bearings with heavily loaded contacts fail primarily by a fatigue mode that may be significantly affected by the lubricant

 EHL is most readily induced in heavily loaded contacts (such as machine elements of low geometrical conformity), where loads act over relatively small contact areas
EHL phenomena also occur in some low elasticmodulus contacts of high geometrical conformity, such as
lip seals, conventional journal and thrust bearings with soft liners, and head-tape interface in magnetic recording tape drives

 In EHL-the simultaneous solutions of the Reynolds equation, the elastic deformation equation, and the equation relating viscosity and pressure. Thermal and shear rate effects also become important and need to be taken into account

 In EHL, adhesive wear occurs during startstop operations and corrosive wear of the bearing surfaces can also occur as a result of interaction with the lubricant In well-designed heavily loaded bearings, fatigue wear is most common.

Boundary Lubrication
The coefficient of friction can be about 0.1 or much higher Boundary lubrication is that condition in which the solid surfaces are so close together that surface interaction between monomolecular or multimolecular films of lubricants (liquids or gases) and the solid asperities dominates the contact.

 In the absence of boundary lubricants and gases (no oxide films), friction may become very high ( > I).

All self-acting bearing interfaces during contact start-stops (CSS), before a fluid film as a result of HD or EHL is developed, operate in the boundary lubrication regime.

 The failure in boundary lubrication occurs by adhesive and chemical (corrosive) wear Boundary lubricants form an easily sheared film on the bearing surfaces, thereby minimizing adhesive wear and chemical wear
The important physical properties of the films are the melting point, shear strength and hardness.

 Under these conditions, the lubricant viscosity is relatively unimportant and the physical and chemical interactions of the lubricant with the solid bodies control friction and wear
Even a monolayer of adsorbed molecules may provide some protection against wear. Lubrication in some situations can be achieved by the use of multimolecular lubricant films. Monolayer lubrication is referred to as BOUNDARY LUBRICATION and multimolecular lubrication is referred to as MIXED LUBRICATION.

 Occurs under high-load and low-speed conditions in machine components such as bearings, gears, cam and tappet interfaces, and piston ring and liner interfaces. Boundary lubrication forms a last line of defense

 The boundary films are formed by physical adsorption, chemical adsorption, and chemical reaction; for typical examples, see Fig. NEXT. The physisorbed film can be of either monomolecular (typically < 3 nm) or polymolecular thickness.

The chemisorbed films are monomolecular

In general, the stability and durability of surface films decrease in the following order: chemical reaction films, chemisorbed films, and physisorbed films.

Properties of the solid surface that are desirable for good lubrication
A solid should have a strong tendency for molecules to adsorb on the surface.
Consequently, metals tend to be the easiest surfaces to be lubricated.

The solid surfaces should have a high wetting so that the liquid lubricant wets the solid easily. For better lubrication, the surface should be reactive to the lubricant under test conditions so that durable, chemically reacted films can form.