Experimental Investigation of Lubricant Extraction from a Micropocket

Abstract

This article presents the results of experimental investigations of lubricant flow out of a micropocket in a conformal contact due to surface shear. A test rig was designed and developed to perform a micropocket flow under boundary and starved lubrication conditions. The test rig consists of a laser-machined circular micropocket on a flat specimen operating against a rotating glass disk under an applied load. Silicone oil was used as the test fluid. Optical microvideography was used to investigate lubricant extraction from micropockets. A high-speed camera was used to observe the lubricant extraction phenomena from micropockets under various operating conditions. Microparticle image velocimetry was also implemented to quantify and analyze lubricant flow from a micropocket. The following results were obtained: ( 1 Yu, T. H. and Sadeghi, F. 2000. “Groove Effects on Thrust Washer Lubrication,”. Journal of Tribology, 123: 295–304. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ) the role of a micropocket by comparing the lubrication mechanism of a contact with and without a micropocket; ( 2 Yu, T. H. and Sadeghi, F. 2002. “Thermal Effect on Thrust Washer Lubrication,”. Journal of Tribology, 124: 166–177. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ) the effects of load, speed, and micropocket geometry on lubricant extraction; and ( 3 Etsion, I. , Klingerman, Y. and Halperin, G. 1999. “Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Textured Mechanical Seal Faces,”. Tribology Transactions, 42: 511–516. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ) the detail of the micropocket flow during the extraction using microparticle image velocimetry (μ-PIV).