The effects of surface texture in reciprocating contacts - An experimental study

By S. Vlădescu, A. Olver, I. Pegg, T. Reddyhoff. 2015

175 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The effect of surface texture on friction has been investigated experimentally for a convergent-divergent bearing, operating under different lubrication regimes. This was achieved using recently developed test apparatus that closely simulates an automotive piston ring-liner contact, by sliding patterned plane fused silica surfaces against a convex steel pad. Textured patterns, consisting of pockets of varying shapes and orientations, were assessed on their ability to reduce frictional losses, and results compared with those from a reference smooth surface. These tests were performed under a range of lubricant viscosities and applied normal loads in order to vary lambda values (i.e. the ratio of minimum film thickness to composite roughness) and hence highlight the beneficial or detrimental effects of texture in boundary, mixed and full film regimes. In the boundary and mixed regimes – the regimes where surface texture was beneficial – grooves normal to the sliding direction were the most effective patterns among those investigated, reducing friction by up to 62%. The results suggest that pockets act to increase fluid entrainment and hence reduce any asperity contact that is present. However, pockets at reversal were shown to increase friction dramatically. In the full film regime, when a liquid film fully separates sliding surfaces, texture was shown to increase friction compared to the smooth case. In addition to this, the experimental setup allowed cavitation in the ring-liner pairing to be imaged. These results may suggest that the increase in full film friction due to surface texture may be due to the interaction of pockets with the cavitated region. Furthermore, imaging results confirm previous research in that the number of cavitation streamers increase as the film thickness decreases.

Subfields: Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics of Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bc7ee40ea102f38e406cab3a91833e4d6a8e18a6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Mechanical Engineering

1. A. Rosenkranz
2. T. Reddyhoff
3. S. Vlădescu
4. A. Olver
5. I. Pegg
6. Mehmet Baykara
7. Ashlie Martini
8. H. Costa

In Mechanics of Materials

1. A. Rosenkranz
2. Mehmet Baykara
3. T. Reddyhoff
4. S. Vlădescu
5. A. Olver
6. I. Pegg
7. Ashlie Martini
8. H. Costa

Citations in the corpus

• Combined friction and wear reduction in a reciprocating contact through laser surface texturing (2016, methodology): “This study used a custom-built reciprocating test rig capable of measuring friction force under conditions that closely partially replicate those found in an automotive piston liner pairing, as detailed in [16].”
• Synergetic effects of surface texturing and solid lubricants to tailor friction and wear – A review (2021, background): “the increase of the hydrodynamic film thickness and load bearing capacity [19, 37, 50-52],”