Quantitative Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication—Seventeen Years In

Seventeen years have passed since the first full elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulation employed the real pressure and shear dependence of viscosity measured in viscometers to accurately predict film thickness and friction. This is the appropriate time to enumerate the advances in understanding brought on by the application of high-pressure rheology to the EHL problem. The pressure dependence of the low-shear viscosity, which has been measured in viscometers for nearly a century, differs from the narratives taught to tribology students and often used to justify inaccurate models. The central film thickness often depends on the shear-thinning at low pressure and time–temperature–pressure superposition demands that the same shear dependence be active at the high pressure where friction is generated. In this article, some of the revelations resulting from quantitative EHL are reviewed. For example, it has been discovered that the minimum film thickness in point contacts depends upon the viscosity at the highest pressures of the contact. This explains the errors in the classical formulas, which were based upon the fictional narratives concerning piezoviscous response, and the assumption of film thickness governed by inlet conditions. Quantitative EHL provides quantitative predictions of contact behavior.