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There is increasing interest in the development of bench tests to characterize the performance of hydraulic fluids in order to minimize the cost of testing and the volumes of fluid currently required for pump testing. One method which permits comprehensive characterization of the boundary, mixed EHD and EHD wear regimes encountered in pump lubrication is to develop a performance map. This paper discusses the use of this testing method to characterize the performance of two experimental hydraulic fluid formulations.

One of the challenges in lubricant development is to adequately model performance across a broad range of potential lubrication and wear regimes that are encountered in use. Since wear in a given application is dependent on both rolling and sliding speeds, it is desirable to determine lubricant performance as a function of these variables. The use of a new test machine and methodology permits the construction of performance maps which define the transitions between lubrication regimes - hydrodynamic/elastohydrodynamic (EHD), EHD/mixed film and mixed film/boundary. This paper describes a method of mapping out the performance of a lubricant over a range of rolling and sliding velocities. Lubrication and wear performance is characterized for an ester base reference fluid (Herco-A) and two commercially available gear oils based on a petroleum oil and a poly(alpha olefin).