Theoretical study on the lubrication failure for the lubricants with a limiting shear stress

It is observed that the non-slip boundary conditions in the classical lubri cation theory are not valid for lubricant with a limiting shear stress. By determining the position of the maximum shear stress and changing velocity boundary condition to stress condition, slip lubrication equations are dedu ced. With numerical solution of the equations, the location and scale of th e boundary slip are analyzed, Finally, after the influences of the slip on the lubrication properties are discussed, results show that a significant d ecrease of the load carrying capacity causes slip lubrication failure. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.