Cavitation Phenomena in Pure-Sliding Grease EHL Films

Grease lubricants are widely used in many machine elements which work in elastohydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication regime. They have advantages over lubricating oils, but are prone to starvation, especially when operating at large speeds. At the same time the complex nature of lubricating grease is little understood and only little knowledge about its chemistry and physics is accessible, which makes the prediction of grease film behavior difficult. In the present paper the relation between lubricating grease composition and operating parameters on one hand and the cavitation length on the other, was evaluated.