Functional Characterization of Structured Surfaces for Tribological Applications

Abstract

Engineered surfaces obtained by modification of surface topography have important industrial applications, many involving tribology. Nevertheless there is still lack of knowledge about fundamental aspects involved in the improvement of surface behaviour. Recent technological developments now permit us to texture surfaces in a flexible way and to assess the tribological efficiency of different microtopologies. Moreover, advances in surface analysis techniques provide methodologies that do not limit the investigation to microgeometry but allow the functional characterization of surfaces. This paper proposes functional surface parameters in order to capture the tribological efficiency of structured surfaces.