In this work, we incorporated a quartic bond potential into a coarse-grained bead-spring model to study lubricant adsorption on a solid surface as well as depletion instability. The surface tension density and the number density profiles were examined to verify the solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces during heat treatment. It was found that both the liquid-vapor interfacial thickness and t...

Within the idealized scheme of a 1-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova-like model, a special ”quantized” sliding state was found for a solid lubricant confined between two periodic layers [1]. This state, characterized by a nontrivial geometrically fixed ratio of the mean lubricant drift velocity 〈vcm〉 and the externally imposed translational velocity vext, was understood as due to the kinks (or soli...

Humidity influences the tribological performance of the head-disk interface in magnetic data storage devices. In this work a quartz crystal microbalance was used to measure the uptake of water on amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-CHx) films at room temperature and pressures of water corresponding to relative humidities of 25%: These experiments have used a-CHx films of varying thickness with and...

Background: Cervical cancer is a pervasive yet preventable killer. Although routine screening exams are available to aid in the early detection of cervical cancer, women often avoid getting their routine annual screening exams. One explanation of this could be due to the discomfort of speculum exams. One way to minimize the discomfort of the speculum exam is to use gel-lubricant. However, there...

OBJECTIVE Nonlubricated plastic specula can adhere to the vaginal introitus and cause discomfort with pelvic examination. We wanted to see if application of water-soluble gel lubricant to the plastic vaginal speculum would change the unsatisfactory cervical cytology diagnosis rate. METHODS Five public health family planning clinic sites were randomized to either water-soluble gel or water onl...

A thermodynamic model describing the phase transition of first order between structure states of lubricant material in the boundary friction regime is proposed. It is shown that lubricant melts with temperature increase or at shear of rubbing surfaces if the elastic strain (stress) exceeds the critical value. The phase diagram with domains of dry and sliding friction is constructed. The depende...

RATIONALE Chemical additives are incorporated into commercial lubricant oils to modify the physical and chemical properties of the lubricant. The quantitative analysis of additives in oil-based lubricants deposited on a surface without extraction of the sample from the surface presents a challenge. The potential of desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) for the quantitat...

We studied the condensation of water drops on a micro-structured lubricant-infused surfaces. Hierarchical micro-prism surfaces were fabricated by soft imprinting with wet TiO2 nanoparticle paste. After hydrophobization, the patterned surfaces were infused with silicone oil as a lubricant. When cooling at high humidity (over 80%), water drops nucleate and start growing on the surface. Once they ...

The essential customer needs of today, namely long bearing service life and low noise performance, demand the availability of a means to verify that the required cleanliness level and lubrication conditions are fulfilled. To fulfil these needs, a new equipment, the SKF BEQUIET+ tester has been developed to assess the quality of the lubricant with regard to cleanliness and damping characteristic...