Hydrodynamic performance of square shape textured parallel sliding contacts considering fluid-solid interfacial slip

Abstract

Hydrodynamic lubrication performances of square shape textured parallel sliding contacts are investigated under the influence of slip at the fluid-solid interface based on a CFD (computational fluid dynamic) approach. A Navier- slip length model is adopted to formulate the fluid-solid interfacial slip. In order to model slip, the enhanced user- defined-function (UDF) in the FLUENT commercial package is developed. The slip in the fluid-solid interface is controlled by applying a hydrophobic property on a certain zone of a textured surface. Four arrangements of placement of fluid-solid interfacial slip are discussed in detail in terms of pressure, load support, friction force and friction coefficient. In addition, such performances of hydrophobic textured contact are also compared with that of optimal conventional (untextured) one. In general, the results suggest that the hydrophobicity of surface textured parallel contact enhances the load support and reduces the friction. Also, a particular care must be taken in choosing the slip placement within the textured surface to achieve an optimal improvement in the parallel textured sliding contact. The predictions show that well-chosen slip on textured zone can considerably improve the sliding contact behaviour and largely justify future numerical analysis.