Rheological Characterization and EHL Simulation of a Grease in a Lubricated Sealing Contact

This contribution provides an insight into the tribological behavior of grease-lubricated contacts in pneumatic spool valves. As the properties of the grease are strongly non-Newtonian, multiple measurements were performed to parameterize two viscosity models, the Herschel-Bulkley and the Palacios-Palacios model. These models are integrated into an EHL simulation of the sealing contact and qualitatively compared for two temperatures. For that system, the total friction force is rather unaffected by the choice of the viscosity model. In addition, qualitatively similar results with about 10 % deviation from the non-Newtonian behavior could be obtained using a Newtonian approximation of the lubricant.