While lubricants have been used for a long time to reducing friction and wear of rubbing surfaces, little is known about the local properties of lubricants in tribological contacts. The high pressure, high shear occur in tribological contacts mean fluids in tribological contacts very often exhibit different properties as compared to its bulk properties. This is supported by recent experimental observations that the local flow and local viscosity of lubricants in tribological contact is heterogeneous. Yet it remains unclear the underline physics of these observations. This work investigates the origins of these peculiar observations with molecular dynamic (MD) simulations. The structure of a model lubricant in the contact both at equilibrium with stationary walls and at steady state with shearing walls are examined.   The thermodynamics properties of the lubricant will be tabulated. How local viscosity of the lubricant and friction of the system will be explored. The results with local viscosity measurements, friction measurements and MD simulations will be compared.<br/>

Dynamics and thermodynamics of lubricants in flow: A molecular and tribological approach

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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