The widespread use of polymers in the high-performance engineering applications brings challenges in the field of liquid lubrication in order to separate the rubbing surfaces by the coherent fluid-film thickness relative to not only the inelastic material response of the polymers. The determination of the mechanical properties by the nanoindentation and the dynamic mechanical analysis represents the key methodology to identify the viscoelastic behavior with respect to the intense frequency and temperature dependance exhibited by polymers. The fluid-film thickness was examined by the optical chromatic interferometry on the rotational tribometer in the ball-on-disc configuration. Based on the experiments performed, first, the complex modulus and the damping factor for the PMMA polymer describing the frequency and temperature dependence were obtained. Afterwards, the central as well as minimum fluid-film thickness were investigated. The results revealed the operation of the compliant circular contact in the transition region very close to the boundary between the Piezoviscous-elastic and Isoviscous-elastic modes of the elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime, and a significant deviation of the fluid-film thickness from the prediction models for both modes in dependence on the inlet temperature.

Centre of Polymer Systems Tomas Bata University in Zlin Trida Tomase Bati 5678 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Brno University of Technology Technicka 2896 2 616 69 Brno Czech Republic

Footwear Research Centre University Institute Tomas Bata University in Zlin Nad Ovcirnou 4 3685 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

HVM Plasma spol s r o Na Hutmance 2 158 00 Praha 5 Czech Republic

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