A unified method for characterizing multiple lubrication regimes involving plastic deformation of surface asperities

This paper presents a unified method for characterizing the hydrodynamic, mixed and boundary lubrication regimes in cold strip rolling. The analysis involves random surface asperities, multi-scale plastic deformation of both the asperities and workpiece, and a statistical modeling of an equivalent interface between the lubricated surfaces in contact sliding. This new method enables us to understand the effect of asperity plastic deformation on the interface lubrication and on the surface topography evolution of a strip surface during rolling. It is expected that the method is also applicable to other contact sliding processes involving complex lubrication and plastic asperity deformation.