Measurement, Modelling, and Appli cation of Lubricant Properties at Extreme Pressures

Abstract

Lubricants play a central role in many technical applications, e.g. in bearings and gears as well as in machining processes. In such applications, lubricants are exposed to extreme conditions in the contact area. In lubrication gaps, the pressure can reach values up to 5 GPa. The thermophysical properties of lubricants, and in particular the viscosity, at such extreme conditions have an important influence on the friction and wear behavior of a tribosystem. Accordingly, reliable lubricant property models are a prerequisite for accurate tribological simulations, e.g. elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulations. Presently, the vast majority of experimental thermophysical property data are only available up to 1 GPa. Thus, reliable and robust models with strong extrapolation capabilities to higher pressure are required. In this work, viscosity measurements of squalane in a temperature range be tween 20 °C and 100 °C and pressures up to 1 GPa were carried out. Based on that data, a physical model for the viscosity was developed. The model is built by combining a molecular-based equation of state with the so-called entropy scaling approach. Finally, we demonstrate how this fluid property model can be favorably integrated in an EHL simulation by an application programming interface (API). The novel hybrid modeling approach is promising for future applications.