Numerical Simulation of the Influence of the Bulges around Laser Surface Textures on the Tribological Performance

Abstract

To improve the tribological performance of mating surfaces such as journal bearings, dimples with different shapes were introduced through laser surface texturing. In laser surface texturing processes, bulges are always induced around the dimples and may influence the tribological performance of the surface. In this article, the influence of the bulges on the tribological performance of a journal bearing is numerically investigated. Variations in both the friction coefficient and the eccentricity ratio of a journal bearing with the width and height of the bulges are studied. The influence of the radius of the dimples on the tribological performance of a journal bearing is also investigated. Results show that the friction coefficient increases with both the width and the height of bulges in the case of journal bearing under light and moderate loading conditions, which is in accord with the experimental results in previous works. The linear variation in the friction coefficient with the height of the bulges indicates that the wear rate of the bulges may be investigated by monitoring the friction coefficient. The abnormality of friction coefficient variation with the width of the bulges in the case of heavy loading condition indicates that introducing the bulges is an effective approach for reasonable tribological performance. From the results for the influence of the dimple radius, it can be concluded that although the introduction of dimples can improve the tribological performance, it also has some disadvantages such as decreasing the load-carrying capacity.