An Experimental Approach to Evaluate Film Thickness in Starved Large-Size Spinning Contacts

In the present work, we evaluate the effects of lubricant starvation on the film thickness of spinning large-size point contacts from an experimental standpoint. This kind of contact is found in roller bearings in which the lubrication of the roller-end/flange contacts may be critical with respect to the system performance. First, the conception and validation of a dedicated experimental setup inducing both test conditions, either independently or combined, is exposed. Then, the work presents novel experimental measurements that corroborate the numerical trends determined in earlier work from the authors and describe the behavior of such contacts from the perspective of its kinematic field. Finally, both maximum and minimum film thicknesses obtained experimentally and numerically are gathered in a chart and compared well with the results given by a hybrid analytical model, combining independently starvation and spinning influences.