Rheology of multigrade engine oils in high deformation rate extensional flows

An experimental study is reported of liquid jets formed by the collapse of bubbles under cavitation-generated pressure waves. The results reveal that jets formed from samples of commercial multigrade engine oils experience an extensional flow which is characterized by high rates of extension, the latter being relevant to considerations of the flow of oils within dynamically loaded journal bearings. Contrary to previous indications in the literature, commercial multigrade oils are found to exhibit significantly larger resistance to extensional flow than their Newtonian counterparts and, insofar as the multigrade oils studied here are made viscoelastic by polymer additives and evidently possess significant levels of resistance to extension, the results provide evidence in support of a mitigating effect of viscoelasticity on a cavitation damage related mechanism, as mooted by Berker, Bouldin, Kleis and Van Arnsdale.