Simulative studies of tribological interfaces with partially filled gaps

The transition range from boundary lubrication to mixed lubrication is still not well understood, because the associated processes are determined by very complex interactions between the fluid inside the gap and rough contact surfaces. In recent works, the authors of this paper introduced a model for describing the fluid flow associated with built up pressures in a partially filled gap. This paper presents the results of further studies with long-duration simulations, and topographies with Gaussian height distributions. It documents a high nonlinearity between the amount of fluid in the gap and the generated pressure distribution. For filling ratios near 50 %, the system behaviour is characterized by local effects, whereas near the fully-flooded regime, the behaviour is characterized more globally.