Mechanism of dimple formation under elastohydrodynamic conditions

This paper describes an experimental study to investigate the mechanism of dimple formation under elastohydrodynamic conditions. The authors measured the temperatures of both the sliding surfaces and the oil film, furthermore, estimated the temperature profiles across the oil film with experimental results. The experimental results show that a temperature difference between the surfaces exists at the dimple zone and varies in the sliding direction. The temperatures of the oil film and the surfaces increase dramatically at the dimple zone. Furthermore, the couette flow predicted by the temperature difference between the surfaces decreases as is close to the centre of the dimple i.e. the pressure increases by the viscosity wedge action at the dimple zone.