Modification of Surface Topography and Analysis of Its Impact on Friction and Wear Reduction of Sliding Contact

Abstract

Proper lubrication and surface modification are key factors to improve the tribological behavior of interacting sliding surfaces under lubricated conditions. Surface texturing of interacting surfaces has found to be an emerging technique that modifies the surfaces deterministically by producing surface features in the form of surface asperities or grooves with specific shape, size and distribution. The present paper address the impact of positive surface textures (protrusions) and number of positive textures in the sliding direction on friction and wear behavior of parallel sliding contacts. The square shaped positive surface textures are created on the specimen by ink-jet followed by chemical etching process. The sliding experiments are conducted on pin on disc friction and wear test rig by providing different sliding conditions such as plain dry, plain with lubricant and textures with lubricant between the interacting surfaces. The results indicated that the textures with lubricated condition exhibit lower friction and wear compared to other two conditions. Furthermore, it is reported that among the tested samples, the textured sample with number of textures three in sliding direction has shown a prominent effect in reducing friction and wear of parallel sliding contact.