Direct Observations of Emulsion Flow in Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Contacts

The lubrication mechanisms with oil-in-water emulsions have been extensively investigated based on the measurements of film thickness and/or tractions in the past few decades. However, direct observation of the emulsion flow, as a more direct method of evaluating suggested explanations, has been greatly restricted by the available instruments, especially the cameras used in collaboration with high-speed bearing simulators. In this paper, a newly devised digital video camera and a microscope were used to directly observe the emulsion flow in an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) inlet region at a wide range of speeds (⁠$0.012m∕s$ up to $1.5m∕s$⁠). Both EHL line and point contacts were considered. Previous observations of low speed oil droplet “stay,” “reverse,” and “penetration” behavior for low-speed line contact were confirmed and extended into high-speed line and point cases, and the results were compared with point contact where significant side flow was observed. Three tight emulsions with different mean droplet sizes were examined on an EHL rig to clarify the droplet behavior and investigate the effect of droplet size on entrainment.