Tribological study of multi-scale textured parallel sliding contacts by considering a mixed lubrication regime and mass conservation condition

Abstract

Surface texturing is a viable technique to enhance the tribological performance of sliding interacting contacts. Single-scaled surface textures exhibit better tribological performance only at hydrodynamic lubrication regime (fluid film pressure) but not in mixed lubrication regime where fluid film pressure and asperity contact pressure co-exists. In most of the machinery with the increase in load and/or decrease in speed, there is a shift of lubrication regime from hydrodynamic to mixed lubrication. To address this, the present work proposed a multi-scale (a combination of shallow and deep) textures concept. A numerical model is developed to study its effect on the tribological characteristics of parallel sliding contacts by considering mixed lubrication regime and mass-conservative cavitation condition. It has been observed that multi-scaled textures exhibit superior results in comparison with single-scaled textures. Moreover, improved tribological characteristics are observed when shallow surface textures are placed first towards the fluid inlet flow.