Rheological Behavior of Confined Fluids in Thin Lubricated Contacts

Abstract

Continuum based methods are traditionally thought to be of little value in describing boundary lubrication, or the mode of lubrication in molecular scale films that may occur at asperity interactions during the sliding of nominally flat surfaces. There is considerable experimental evidence, which suggests that the classical theory may be valid with modification to films as thin as several nanometers. In addition, lubricants, which exhibit viscous liquid properties in bulk, may form attached solid-like elastic layers when confined between solid surfaces. In the present paper, the simple “elastic foundation” concept is used to model the elastic layers, in contact with a viscous fluid film. Several typical bearing contact flow problems are solved, giving hope that boundary lubrication may eventually be modeled in the same manner as hydrodynamic lubrication in thicker films.