• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2003

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film is measured under the condition of viscosity index improver added to base oil. In-situ optical contact method using the interference principle make the measuring resolution of ~5 nm possible and enables the measuring range all over the contact area of up to ~300 $\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter. What is more important to the developed method by the author is that the measurement of EHL film thickness is possible in the range from 100 nm to 2 $\mu\textrm{m}$, which is the regime of worst contact failures in precision machinery. Viscosity index improver (VII) is one of the major additives to the modem multigrade lubricants for the viscosity stability against temperature rise. However, it causes shear thinning effects which make the film thickness lessened very delicately at high shear rate (over $10^5 s^{-1}$) of general EHL contact regime. In order to exactly verify the VIIs performance of viscosity stability at such high shear rate, it is necessary to make the measurement of EHL film thickness down to ~100 nm with fine resolution for the preliminary study of viscosity control. In this work, EHL film thickness of VII added lubricant is measured with the resolution of ~5 nm, which will give very informative design tool for the synthesis of lubricants regarding the matter of load carrying capacity at high shear rate condition.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.189-198
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• 2014

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of the correlation between the lubrication characteristics of an engine and its fuel economy. Improving the lubrication characteristics of the engine oil is one of the most efficient ways to improve a car's fuel economy. The methods to accomplish this include lowering the viscosity, adding a friction modifier and optimizing the shear stability index of a viscosity index improver. In addition, it is necessary to use different methods to reduce the friction to individual lubrication areas, because different lubrication regimes are used for different engine parts. The experimental investigation in this study is based on design of experiments ; this paper presents the results of a modified Sequence VID test, which is an ASTM standard test used to measure the effects of automotive engine oils on the fuel economy of passenger cars. The results demonstrate the effects of the following lubrication factors on the fuel economy : the low temperature cranking viscosity, high-temperature high shear (HTHS) viscosity, friction modifier, polymer type and shear stability index of the viscosity index improver. Moreover, this study involves an analysis of variance based on design of experiments. The test results show that the HTHS viscosity, friction modifier and shear stability index of the viscosity index improver are more effective than the other factors. Therefore, lowering the viscosity, adding a friction modifier and optimizing the shear stability index of a viscosity index improver should be considered to improve fuel economy.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.248-256
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• 1999

Many tribological components in automobile engine undergo high load and sliding speed with thin film thickness. The lubrication characteristics of the components are regarded as ether hydrodynamic lubrication or boundary lubrication, whereas in a working cycle they actually have both characteristics. Many modem engine lubricants have various additives for better performance which make boundary film formation even under hydrodynamic lubrication regime. Conventional Reynolds equation with the viewpoints of continuum mechanics concerns only bulk viscosity of lubricant, which means that its simulation does not give insights on boundary lubrication characteristics. However, many additives of modern engine lubricant provide mixed modes of boundary lubrication characteristics and hydrodynamic lubrication. Especially, high molecular weight polymeric viscosity index improvers form boundary film on the solid surface and cause non-Newtonian fluid effect of shear thinning. This study has performed the investigation about journal bearing system with the mixed concepts of boundary lubrication and hydrodynamic lubrication which happen concurrently in many engine components under the condition of viscosity index improver added.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.215-223
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• 2003

Viscosity index improver (VII) is one of the major additives to the modern multigrade lubricants for the viscosity stability against temperature rise. However, it causes shear thinning effects which make the film thickness lessened very delicately at high shear rate $(over\;10^5\;s^{-1})$ of general EHL contact regime. In order to exactly verify the VII's performance of viscosity stability at such high shear rate, it is necessary to make the measurement of EHL film thickness down to $\~100nm$ with fine resolution for the preliminary study of viscosity control. In this work, EHL film thickness of VII added lubricant is measured with the resolution of $\~5nm$, which will give very informative design tool for the synthesis of lubricants regarding the matter of load carrying capacity at high shear rate condition.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.47-55
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• 2012

Generally, to product multi-grade oil like engine oil, a sort of mineral base oil is mixed with a fundamental additive package liquid and a polymer liquid as viscosity index improver in order to improve the lubricating property of base oil. That is, engine oil is the mixture of more than two fluids. Specially, a polymeric type liquid cannot be seen as the linear viscosity like Newtonian fluids. In this research, by using the governing equation describing non-Newtonian hydrodynamic lubrication related with the mixture of incompressible fluids based on the principle of continuum mechanics, it will be compared the bearing performance between the mixture of each liquid to be blended and multi-grade engine oil as a single fluid in a high speed hydrodynamic journal bearing. Further, it is to be found the way estimating the performance of the blended multi-grade engine lubricant in a journal bearing in advance before blending by using the physical properties of mineral base oil, fundamental additive liquid and polymer liquid of viscosity index improver. So, it can be reduced the number of trial and error to get the wanted lubricant by selecting the proper volume fraction of each liquid to satisfy the expected performance and estimating in advance the performance of various multi-grade oils before blending. Therefore, it can be shorten the developing time and saved the developing cost.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.343-353
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• 1999

The role of viscosity index improver's(Ⅶ) additives for modem engine lubrication is complex. Under the condition of atmosphere or low shear rate, the characteristics of Ⅶ added lubricant is verified and quoted frequently for mathematical model of lubricant behavior. However, recent research shows that added lubricant has the characteristics of shear thinning at high shear rate condition although it performs well enough over the whole range of working temperature. At high shear rate, they show significant decrease of apparent viscosity irrespective of temperature. Many experimental researches verify that Ⅶ added lubricant shows boundary film layer formation on the solid surface as well as shear thinning effect by its polymeric molecular characteristics. The intend of our research is to verify the effects of Ⅶ from the viewpoint of continuum mechanics, because conventional Reynolds'equation with only pressure-viscosity relation cannot fully predict the lubricant behavior under the Ⅶ added condition. In these aspects, Reynolds'equation of Newtonian fluid model lacks the reflection of real fluid behavior and there is no way to explain the non-linear characteristics of Ⅶ added lubricant. In this research, we mathematically modeled the Ⅶ added lubricant behaviors which are the characteristics of non-Newtonian fluid behavior at high shear rate and boundary film formation on the solid surface. The consideration of elastic deformation in the contact region is also included in our computation and finally the converged film pressure and the film thickness with elastic deformation are obtained. The results are compared with those of Newtonian fluid model.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.81-92
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• 2012

To product multi-grade oil like engine oil, a sort of mineral base oil is mixed with a fundamental additive liquid package and a polymer liquid as viscosity index improver in order to improve the lubricating property of oil. That is, engine oil is the mixture of more than two fluids. In this paper, it will be systematically organized the governing equation describing non-Newtonian thermo-hydrodynamic lubrication related with the mixture of incompressible fluids based on the principle of continuum mechanics. Then, in order to find how the thermal analysis effect on the bearing performance lubricated with the mixture of multi-fluids, it will be compared to the performances between the mixture of each liquid to be blended and multi-grade engine oil as a single fluid in a high speed journal bearing. It is found that, in the case of lower viscosity oil, the difference of pressure distribution between the above two cases turns out to be existed, even if the load capacity is same level.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.236-242
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• 2009

Oil viscosity is one of the important parameters for machinery condition monitoring. Basically, it is expressed as kinematic viscosity measured by capillary flow and dynamic or absolute viscosity measured by rotary shear viscometry. Recently, acoustic wave techniques appear in the market, measuring viscosity as the product of dynamic viscosity and density. For Newtonian fluids, knowledge of density allows conversion from one viscosity parameter to the other at a specific shear rate and temperature. In this work, oil samples with different chain lengths of viscosity index (VI) improvers and concentrations were examined by different viscometric techniques. Results showed that acoustic viscosity measurements give misleading results for oil samples with high molecular weight VI improvers and at low temperatures ${\leq}40^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.91-92
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• 2002

Most studies of elsatohydrodynamic lubrication are oriented only to the measurement of film thickness itself with optical interferometer. In order to exactly investigate the characteristics of a certain lubricant under the condition of additives. especially for traction performance. it is also important to get the information of traction force as well. In this work. we developed the device for measuring friction force of EHL contact condition, which can trace the film thickness over the contact area with optical interferometer. To verify the validity of the measuring system, the friction force and film thickness under EHL condition are measured with the variation of additive ratios of viscosity Index improvers.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2008

A pin bush bearing is one of the most important element in the piston engine which is joined a piston to a connecting rod. A pin bush is suffered by heat and changeable repeat loads, which are come from the explosive gas heat and pressures during a reciprocating stroke. Therefore, a tribological behavior of pin bush bearings is very severe compared to other parts of a piston assembly. To keep a stable operation of pin bush bearings effectively, it would be satisfied with proper oil film strength for severe operating conditions and durability, which are strongly related to the oil film thickness, oil film pressure, and a friction loss power. The computed results show that the viscosity of engine oils slightly affects to the minimum oil film thickness and oil film pressure distribution, but is an influential parameter on a total friction loss power. Thus the low viscosity engine oils for an increased operation condition should select a high level of base oil and add a viscosity index improver as an oil film additive.