Effects of area ratio and nature of surfaces on scuffing in lubricated contacts

Abstract

Heavily loaded moving machine components encounter severe tribological problems. Typical examples include piston and cylinder contacts in a hydraulic motor. Piston and cylinder bore contacts invariably operate in boundary lubrication regime and the risk for seizure of these contacts is high particularly when lubricated with low-viscosity lubricants. The piston assembly in a radial piston hydraulic motor has conformal (area) contact. In this work, these contacts have been simulated in the laboratory by using a thrust washer test configuration. The influence of area ratio, nature of contacting surfaces, and speed on scuffing has been investigated by using a factorial design of experiments approach. The influence of area ratio on wear at lower speed has also been studied. The results have revealed that the surface power, or μ pv-value, at scuffing varies by 3—4 times when the area ratio was increased from 8 to 72 per cent. The running-in wear tests have shown that running-in of the upper and lower specimens also varies with the area ratio. During the first 30 s the upper specimen is polished with low area ratio, whereas the lower specimen is polished with high area ratio. The surface temperature was estimated by using finite-element calculation and it was found to be similar prior to scuffing for both 8 and 72 per cent area ratios at 1.7 m/s sliding speed. The comparison of the results with the actual motor tests shows that an area ratio of 24 per cent seems to simulate the piston-cylinder contact better.