The Effect of Wetting and Surface Energy on the Friction and Slip in Oil-Lubricated Contacts

This work shows the influence of solid–liquid interactions between engineering surfaces (steel and several types of DLC coatings) and lubricating oil (polyalphaolefin, PAO) on the coefficient of friction in the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) regime. Specifically, it confirms that the spreading parameter, rather than the contact angle, is the relevant parameter to evaluate the wetting behaviour of these surfaces with oils. Both the...