Analysis of lubricated squeezing flow

A thin film of low‐viscosity lubricating liquid between a solid wall and a viscous material reduces shear stress on the latter and tends to make it flow as though it were slipping along the wall. The result when the lubricated material is being squeezed out of the gap between approaching parallel plates is flow more nearly irrotational, or extensional, the more effective the lubricating film on the plates. Two Newtonian analyses of this flow situation are reported. One is an approximate, asymptotic analytical solution for Newtonian lubricating flow in the films and combined mixed flow, shear and extension, in the viscous layer. The second is a full two‐dimensional axisymmetric solution of the momentum and continuity equations along with the kinematic condition which governs the motion of the interface. Both analyses indicate that there are two limiting flow regimes, depending on the ratio of the thickness of each of the two phases to radius and on the viscosity ratio of the two liquids. In one limit the flow is parallel squeezing and the lubricant layer slowly thins and persists a long time. In the other the lubricant is expelled preferentially. Implications of the results are discussed for rheological characterization of viscoelastic liquids and for prediction of lubricated or autolubricated flows in processing situations.