The First Normal Stress Difference in a Shear-Thinning Motor Oil at Elevated Pressure

Abstract

Currently, the only aspect of non-Newtonian behavior being modeled in lubrication is the shear dependence of viscosity. However, shear thinning is accompanied by a large difference between the normal stress in the flow direction and the cross-film direction. This stress difference can increase the load capability of a lubricant film without increased frictional penalty.

A commercial 10W-40 motor oil was characterized at elevated pressures. Three different high-pressure instruments were employed: a falling-body viscometer, a thin-film Couette viscometer, and a parallel-plate rheogoniometer. Ordinary shear thinning with a second Newtonian inflection was observed. A first normal stress difference of 0.6 MPa was measured under what may be mild conditions for a crankshaft journal bearing. Elevated pressures are essential to the measurement of rheological properties that govern hydrodynamic film thickness and friction in automotive components.

Time–temperature–pressure superposition was validated for the first normal stress difference. The first normal stress difference in the terminal regime may be estimated from the upper-convected Maxwell model, where the shear modulus is assumed to be equal to the Newtonian limit shear stress obtained from a measurement of shear thinning. The first normal stress difference in the shear-thinning regime may be estimated from an extant empirical rule.

These results will be of substantial importance when analytical techniques are developed for hydrodynamic lubrication with real non-Newtonian shear response. The results are immediately useful for calculating the shear stress for cavitation in ambient pressure high-shear viscometers.

KEY WORDS:

• VI Improvers
• Viscosity
• Non-Newtonian
• Shear Thinning

Funding

Construction of the rheometer and normal stress measurements were supported by the Valvoline Company. Viscometer measurements and analysis were supported by the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center funded under cooperative agreement number EEC-0540834.