Tribology in Transportation: The Contribution of the Lubricant Rheology for Optimizing the Behavior of EHD Contacts
Résumé
Among the current great challenges in transportation we find the reduction of renewable material consumption, the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions, the scaling down of maintenance cost and frequency and, for mechanical transmissions, the extension of their life and their efficiency. One key for improving the latters for highly loaded (or EHD) lubricated parts lies in decreasing friction but keeping an acceptable surface separation. This can be achieved by a thorough knowledge of the lubricant rheological behavior, under conditions similar to those undergone in the application, and by the optimization of its properties according its composition and the real working conditions. In this presentation we propose i) to review the parameters of importance in EHL, to show ii) how they can be obtained, iii) how they can be introduced in a multi physics EHL model and finally iv) to underline what are the current limitations.