Research on thin film lubrication: state of the art

Thin film lubrication (TFL) has been well studied as a new lubrication regime since 1990s. TFL is a transition lubrication regime between elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) and boundary lubrication (BL), which has specific lubrication features. Present paper summarizes the advancements of researches on TFL, which involves the origin of the TFL concept, advancement of measuring techniques, TFL film-forming features, investigation on its mechanism, and computation theories.