Movement of entrapped oil under pure rolling conditions

This article presents a study on the movement of an oil entrapment (or impact dimple) in a pure rolling elastohydrodynamic lubricated (EHL) contact. The oil entrapment was formed by impacting a steel ball against a lubricated glass disc. The contact was then activated under pure rolling conditions, and the movement of the entrapped oil was visualized by optical interferometry. It was found that during the movement of the dimple within the EHL contact, there exists a critical value for the displacement of dimple core. For the displacement of the dimple core less than the critical value, the dimple moves at the entrainment velocity and the film thickness of dimple core remains almost constant. For displacement beyond the critical value, the dimple slows down and its depth decreases rapidly. The effects of influential factors such as speed, initial dimple depth, load, and initial gap size were theoretically and experimentally investigated. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.