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To form and develop a new mode of mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (mixed EHL) which is more realistic and of more application values to a practical elastohydrodynamic contact on gears, cams and roller bearings than the previous and current existing mixed EHL models.

The representative theoretical and experimental studies on elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) and mixed EHL carried out in the previous and recent time, including those of the author, are reviewed. The obtained results on EHL and mixed EHL in those studies and the viewpoints on the mode of mixed EHL based on those results developed in those studies are compared and evaluated. Strong proves are formed on the new mode of mixed EHL proposed in the present paper based on these comparisons and evaluations.

Strong viewpoints are formed on the mode of the occurrence of dry contact in EHL in a practical concentrated contact. A new mode of mixed EHL is proposed by incorporating this mode of the occurrence of dry contact in EHL. Also, comments and evaluations on the previous researches on mixed EHL are made.

A very useful material for the engineers who are engaged in the design of EHL on gears, cams and roller bearings, and for the tribology scientists who thrust efforts in studying EHL and mixed EHL both by theoretical modeling and by experiments.

A new mode of mixed EHL is originally proposed by incorporating the finding of a more realistic mode of the occurrence of dry contact in EHL. This new mode of mixed EHL should become the direction of the theoretical research of mixed EHL in the future time. It provides a clearer way to this research.

To review, analyze and present the effects of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength and contact‐fluid interfacial slippage and the critical importance of these effects in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL).

The experimental and theoretical research results of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength and its caused contact‐fluid interfacial slippage in hydrodynamic lubrication and especially in EHL obtained in the past decades and progressed in recent years by the present author and by others are reviewed. Analysis and presentation are made on both the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength versus fluid pressure curve for a given bulk fluid temperature in an isothermal EHL and the influence of the bulk fluid temperature on this curve.

It is very clearly and well understood from the present paper that the value of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength in the inlet zone in an EHL contact, i.e. at low EHL fluid film pressures is usually low and usually has rather a weak dependence on the EHL fluid film pressure. This proves the correctness of the EHL theories previously developed by the author based on the assumption of this low value and dependence on the EHL fluid film pressure of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength. It is also very clearly understood that the bulk fluid temperature usually has a strong influence on the value of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength in EHL and the increase of this temperature usually significantly reduces the value of the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength in EHL.

A very useful material for the engineers who are engaged in the design of EHL on gears, cams and roller bearings, and for the tribology scientists who thrust efforts in studying EHL and mixed EHL both by theoretical modeling and by experiments.

A new and generalized mode of mixed EHL is originally proposed by incorporating the finding of a more realistic mode of the contact regimes in a practical mixed EHL based on the contact‐fluid interfacial shear strength and contact‐fluid interfacial slippage effects. This mode of mixed EHL should become the direction of the theoretical research of mixed EHL in the future.

To make a derivation of the load‐carrying capacity of elastohydrodynamic lubrication for special operating conditions, i.e. extremely heavy loads or extremely low rolling speeds based on the Newtonian fluid model by taking the Grubin‐type EHL inlet zone analysis, justify the load‐carrying capacity of elastohydrodynamic lubrication film in these operating conditions, and propose future trends of the research in EHL and mixed EHL based on the obtained results in the present paper.

A Grubin‐type EHL inlet zone analysis is carried out for the isothermal EHL of line contacts in special operating conditions, i.e. extremely heavy loads or extremely low rolling speeds based on the Newtonian fluid model. Comparison is made between the central EHL film thickness in line contacts, respectively, predicted by conventional EHL theories and accurately predicted from the present analysis for these operating conditions. An interpretation is made for the EHL film thickness in these operating conditions by taking the approach of the transportation and flow of the fluid through elastohydrodynamic contact when the EHL film is, respectively, thick and molecularly thin in the Hertzian zone. Conclusions are drawn on the load‐carrying capacity of EHL, EHL contact regimes and mixed EHL regimes in these operating conditions.

The present EHL inlet zone analysis shows that the EHL film thickness in the Hertzian zone is on the nanometer scale and the lubricant is non‐continuum across the film thickness in the Hertzian zone at relatively heavy loads in line contact EHL when the dimensionless rolling speed is lower than the dimensionless characteristic rolling speed U_ch=0.0372W^1.50/G. In this case, the central EHL film thickness in line contact EHL predicted by the conventional EHL theory may be several orders of magnitudes higher than that accurately predicted. This difference may be greater for heavier loads.The present results for line contact EHL based on the Newtonian fluid model show that in line contact EHL, for relatively heavy loads and the dimensionless rolling speed lower than the dimensionless characteristic rolling speed U_ch=0.0372W^1.50/G, the EHL analysis needs to further incorporate the lubricant non‐continuum effect across the film thickness in part of the lubricated area to investigate the EHL film thickness and the EHL film pressure in the contact in this very low film thickness condition; only the results based on such an analysis are believable for the EHL stage where the lubricant film thickness in the Hertzian zone approaches to zero and then vanishes; the results for EHL based on the Newtonian fluid model is unable to conclude that the EHL film thickness in the Hertzian zone is zero and dry contact occurs between the contact surfaces in EHL in any operating condition for ignoring the lubricant non‐continuum regime governing the EHL stage preceding the occurrence of the zero lubricant film thickness in EHL.

A very useful source of information for academic scientists, engineers and tribologists who are engaged in the study and application of the theory of elastohydrodynamic lubrication.

A derivation is first carried out for the isothermal EHL of line contacts in extremely heavy loads or extremely low rolling speeds by taking the Grubin‐type EHL inlet zone analysis by the present paper. Results and conclusions on the load‐carrying capacity of EHL in these operating conditions are first strict and thus convincing. These results are also original in clarifying the future trends of the researches in EHL and mixed EHL.

This paper studies elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of line contacts for the slide‐roll ratios 0‐2 based on the assumptions of interfacial shear strength and interfacial slip. It is shown that the viscoelastic, viscoplastic and non‐continuum fluids distribute from the inlet zone to the Hertzian contact zone in order for a given operating condition when the load and rolling speed exceed critical values. For the rolling speed below the critical, the distributing fluids from the inlet zone to the Hertzian contact zone in order are viscoelastic and non‐continuum when the load exceeds a critical value. These show a multirheological behavior EHL film, formed in a contact, which may represent a mode of mixed lubrication. For this mode of lubrication, the fluid model should handle both inlet and Hertzian contact zones where the fluids are, respectively, continuum and non‐continuum. A new EHL analysis and theory, therefore needs to be established.

The main purpose of this paper is to present the effort on developing a mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model to study the tribological effect of asperities on rough surface.

The model, with the use of the average flow Reynolds equation and the K-E elasto-plastic contact model, allows predictions of hydrodynamic pressure and contact pressure on the virtual rough surface, respectively. Then, the substrate elastic deformation is calculated by discrete convolution fast-Fourier transform (DC-FFT) method to modify the film thickness recursively. Afterwards, corresponding ball-on-disk tests are conducted and the validity of the model demonstrated. Moreover, the effects of asperity features, such as roughness, curvature radius and asperity pattern factor, on the tribological properties of EHL, are also discussed though plotting corresponding Stribeck curves and film thickness shapes.

It is demonstrated that the current model predicts very close data compared with corresponding experimental results. And it has the advantage of high accuracy comparing with other typical models. Furthermore, smaller roughness, bigger asperity radius and transverse rough surface pattern are found to have lower friction coefficients in mixed EHL models.

This paper contributes toward developing a mixed EHL model to investigate the effect of surface roughness, which may be helpful to better understand partial EHL.

This study aims to use a machine learning (ML) model for the prediction of traction coefficient and asperity load ratio for different surface topographies of non-conformal rough contacts.

The input data set for the ML model is generated using a mixed-lubrication model. Surface topography parameters (skewness, kurtosis and pattern ratio), rolling speed and hardness are used as input features in the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model. The hyperparameter tuning and fivefold cross-validation are also performed to minimize the overfitting.

From the results, it is shown that the MLP model shows excellent accuracy (R² > 90%) on the test data set for making the prediction of mixed lubrication parameters. It is also observed that engineered rough surfaces with high negative skewness, low kurtosis and isotropic surface patterns exhibit a significant low traction coefficient. It is also concluded that the MLP model gives better accuracy in comparison to the random forest regression model based on the training and testing data sets.

Mixed lubrication parameters are predicted by developing a regression-based MLP model. The machine learning model is trained using several topography parameters, which are vital in the mixed-EHL regime because of the lack of regression-fit expressions in previous works. The accuracy of MLP with random forest models is also compared.

This paper aims to present the mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model and obtain the leakage characteristics for the skeleton reciprocating oil seal.

The model consists of a finite element analysis of the contact pressure, a fluid mechanics analysis of the fluid film, a contact analysis of the asperity contact pressure, a deformation analysis of the seal lip and an iterative numerical simulation process.

Simulation results show that the leakage is in direct proportion to the seal roughness and speed, and in inverse proportion to the fluid viscosity. Comparisons with the experimental results verify the validity of the mixed EHL model.

This study provides a helpful method to calculate the leakage of the skeleton reciprocating oil seal, which shortens its development cycles.

Seeks to study the dependence of the shear strength of a fluid on the fluid pressure and the bulk fluid temperature, respectively, theoretically for given bulk fluid temperatures and fluid pressures in the whole ranges of fluid pressure and bulk fluid temperature.

The analyses are, respectively, carried out with emphasis on the dependence of the shear strength of a fluid in liquid state, i.e. at low pressures on the fluid pressure and the bulk fluid temperature for given bulk fluid temperatures and fluid pressures based on the theory of the compression of the fluid by the pressurization of the fluid.

The fluid shear strength versus fluid pressure curve in the whole range of fluid pressure and the fluid shear strength versus bulk fluid temperature curve in the whole range of bulk fluid temperature, respectively, for a given bulk fluid temperature and a given fluid pressure are obtained. It is shown by this fluid shear strength versus fluid pressure curve that, for a given bulk fluid temperature, when the fluid is in liquid state, i.e. at low pressures, the value of the shear strength of the fluid is insensitive to the variation of the pressure of the fluid and is low: when the fluid is in solidification state, i.e. at medium and high but not extremely high pressures, the value of the shear strength of the fluid is the most sensitive to the variation of the pressure of the fluid and is very approximately linearly increased with the increase of the pressure of the fluid; when the fluid is in high solidification state, i.e. at extremely high pressures, the value of the shear strength of the fluid is insensitive to the variation of the pressure of the fluid and is the highest, i.e. approaches the value of the shear strength of the fluid in solid state.

Extends one's knowledge of the shear strength of a fluid in the while ranges of pressure and temperature.

The tribological behavior, i.e. friction coefficient and wear rate, and vibration characteristics of the water-lubricated bearing was investigated. The water-lubricated bearing is made of three different materials, i.e. polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK), polyimide (PI) and nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR).

The tribological behavior was investigated experimentally on a specially designed test rig. Three vibration sensors were used to record the vibration of the bearing.

The results indicated that the variation of friction coefficient with rotation speed agrees well with the trend of Stribeck curve. The tested friction coefficient of rubber bearing is higher than that of the other two bearings whether it is in the state of mixed-lubrication or hydrodynamic lubrication, and which causing a larger wear rate in rubber bearing. The PEEK bearing exhibits the best tribological properties due to it has smaller friction coefficient and wear rate. However, it can be found that the rubber bearing gives the minimum vibration acceleration, which means that the rubber bearing has the most potential to improve the stability of water-lubricated bearing rotor system.

In this study, a group of experiment studies conducted on a specially designed test rig. The comprehensive performance, including friction coefficient, vibration acceleration and wear rate, of water-lubricated bearing with three different materials, i.e. PEEK, PI and NBR, was compared systematically. The experiment research may offer a reference for the selection of material in water-lubricated bearing in specific operating conditions.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-10-2019-0447/

Harmonic gears always work under different operating conditions and may usually break down due to lubrication failures, while its lubrication mechanism is still not clearly understood. This paper aims to present a lubrication model comprehensively considering the influence of contact geometry, lubrication properties and three-dimensional (3D) real surface roughness to analyze the lubrication performance under different conditions.

Based on the discrete convolution-fast Fourier transformation with duplicated padding and quasi-system numerical methods, the lubrication model for harmonic gears is developed, which is verified by comparing results with available lubrication data.

The effects of meshing process, working conditions and 3D roughness on the lubrication characteristics are discussed. From the calculated cases, the increase in rotational speed and decrease of applied torque may increase the film thickness, enhancing the lubrication performance of harmonic gears. It is also observed that proper surface roughness can be used for lubrication design.

The research results can provide theoretical guidance for improving lubrication performance and reducing friction/wear of the harmonic gear interfaces. This study can be promoted to various engineering scenarios of harmonic gears, such as industrial robots, space-driven agencies and precision measuring instruments.