Interface characteristics of thin liquid films in a charged lubricated contact |
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| Authors: | Guoxin Xie Lina Si Dan Guo Shuhai Liu Jianbin Luo |
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| Affiliation: | State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | The interface characteristics of liquid films confined within a nanogap between a steel ball and a smooth glass disk after exposing to an external electric field (EEF) are reported in the paper. The emergence of micro‐bubbles induced by the EEF has been found to be closely related with the electric current flow at both a positive EEF and a negative EEF. The polarity effect of the variation in the electric current flowing through a polar liquid film over time is more pronounced than that through a nonpolar liquid film. The surface of the contacting pair with the polar liquid film confined after the removal of the EEF is more severely damaged at a negative EEF, while no indication of damage has been observed on the surface contacting the nonpolar liquid film at either polarity. The bubbles generated under a positive EEF can collapse more readily than those generated under a negative EEF. Different mechanisms of these experimental phenomena have been discussed in the paper. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | interface characteristics thin liquid films lubricated contact |
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