Under steady-state pure rolling conditions with low speed, the thickener fiber agglomerations can be maintained for a long time, generating a beneficial thicker film thickness. However, in industrial applications, motions with sliding or transient effects are very common for gears, rolling-element bearings or even chain drives, evaluation of the grease performance under such conditions is vital for determining the lubrication mechanism and designing new greases. In this project, optical interferometry experiments were carried out on a ball-disk test rig to study the disintegration time of the grease thickener agglomerations with the increase of the slide-to-roll ratio under steady-state and reciprocation motions. Under steady-state conditions, the thickener fiber agglomeration can exist for a while and the time becomes shorter with the increase of the slide-to-roll ratio above the critical speed. Below the critical speed, the thickener fiber can exist in the contact in the form of a quite thick film for a very long time under pure rolling conditions but that time is decreased with the increase of the slide-to-roll ratio. The introduction of the transient effect can further reduce the existence time of the thickener.

在低速的稳态纯轧制条件下，可以长时间保持增稠剂纤维的团聚，从而产生有利的较厚的膜厚。但是，在工业应用中，齿轮，滚动轴承甚至链传动中带有滑动或瞬变效应的运动非常普遍，在这种情况下评估润滑脂性能对于确定润滑机理和设计新润滑脂至关重要。在该项目中，在球盘试验台上进行了光学干涉实验，研究了在稳态和往复运动下，随着滑模比的增加，润滑脂增稠剂团聚的崩解时间。在稳态条件下，增稠剂纤维的团聚可以存在一段时间，并且随着高于临界速度的滑动比的增加，时间会缩短。在临界速度以下，在纯轧制条件下，增稠剂纤维可以很厚的膜形式长时间存在于接触中，但是随着滑动比的增加，时间会减少。过渡效应的引入可以进一步减少增稠剂的存在时间。