Lubricants have been used for many years in order to reduce friction between solid surfaces. For improving the performance of the machine such as engine in the fluid lubrication regime, the development of low viscosity lubricants is essential. It is crucial for such lubricants to sufficiently reduce the friction and the wear in the boundary lubrication regime, which appears during low shear speed and high normal load. The conventional view of the boundary lubrication regime is that the thickness of the lubricants between surfaces is similar to the roughness or less and the surfaces are partly in solid−solid contact on the bump. However, recent reports have demonstrated that the molecules of the lubricants remain between the surfaces even under a high normal load. Therefore, understanding the detailed mechanism of the boundary lubrication is necessary.<br/>We have developed the resonance shear measurement (RSM) based on the surface forces apparatus (SFA) and studied the nanorheological and tribological properties of the confined liquids including lubricants. Study of lubricants between iron (not mica) surfaces is possible using the twin-path SFA we also developed. This paper reports the RSM based on the twin-path SFA for characterizing the nanorheological and tribological properties of lubricants between the iron surfaces, and its application for studying hexadecane and poly(α-olefin) (PAO).

Boundary lubrication studied by resonance shear measurement

255th National Meeting (2018)

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