Predicting Microscale Cross-Hatched Surface Texture in Engine Cylinder Bore

Abstract

Cross-hatched texture is the essential surface feature in cylinder bore generated from honing process. The interconnected grooves of the surface texture provide storage space and diffusion channels for the lubrication oil. Thus, it is widely used to reduce contact friction, lubrication oil consumption and improve the wear resistance of piston-ring contact pairs in automotive engine. The surface texture was simulated by various analytical methods in literatures. However, the mechanism of generation of surface texture stays a black box and poses a challenge to further control engine quality. This study presents a new kinematic model to simulate the generation of cross-hatched surface texture in the honing process of engine cylinder bore. It formulates the process motions based on honing operations in automotive industry. And a microscale model is established to simulate honing stone surface topography with randomly distributed abrasive particle sizes, postures and distributions obtained by a modified Poisson disk sampling algorithm. The kinematic simulation is performed by moving the honing stone surface topography along the motion trajectory. Abrasive particles interact with cylinder surface and generate texture grooves as honing stones feed. Using this method, honing surface texture is demonstrated with cross-hatched feature at microscale level, and the difference of cross-hatched texture is revealed visibly and quantitively as roughness corresponding to honing stones with different abrasive particle shapes, wear conditions and position distributions in height direction.