Effect of Lubricant Fragments on Lubricant Transfer: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation

A modified coarse-grained, bead-spring model was used to investigate the effect of lubricant fragments (LF) on lubricant transfer from a rotating disk to a slider in this paper. The simulation results indicate that full lubricant molecules cannot transfer to the slider surface for large enough slider to disk spacing. However, degraded lubricant molecules, namely LF, are able to transfer from the disk to the slider. LF with lower molecular weight is easier to transfer to the slider. The amount of the transferred LF decreases with increased spacing between the slider and the disk. The amount of the transferred lubricant also depends on the lubricant decomposed position, i.e., LF without end groups are more readily transferred to the slider.