Abstract
Textured surfaces offer the potential to promote friction and wear reduction by increasing the hydrodynamic pressure, fluid uptake, or acting as oil or debris reservoirs. However, texturing techniques often require additional manufacturing steps and costs, thus frequently being not economically feasible for real engineering applications. This experimental study aims at applying a fast laser texturing technique on curved surfaces for obtaining superior tribological performances. A femtosecond pulsed laser (Ti:Sapphire) and direct laser interference patterning (with a solid-state Nd:YAG laser) were used for manufacturing dimple and groove patterns on curved steel surfaces (ball samples). Tribological tests were carried out under elasto-hydrodynamic lubricated contact conditions varying slide-roll ratio using a ball-on-disk configuration. Furthermore, a specific interferometry technique for rough surfaces was used to measure the film thickness of smooth and textured surfaces. Smooth steel samples were used to obtain data for the reference surface. The results showed that dimples promoted friction reduction (up to 20%) compared to the reference smooth specimens, whereas grooves generally caused less beneficial or detrimental effects. In addition, dimples promoted the formation of full film lubrication conditions at lower speeds. This study demonstrates how fast texturing techniques could potentially be used for improving the tribological performance of bearings as well as other mechanical components utilised in several engineering applications.
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Acknowledgements
This project was generously financed by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (FAPESP Grant Nos. 2016/25067-9 and 2017/21151-8) and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). G. BOIDI thanks the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) for the funding obtained by the Austrian COMET-Program (Project K2, InTribology, No. 872176) carried out at the “Excellence Centre of Tribology” (AC2T research GmbH). The government of Lower Austria is gratefully acknowledged for financially supporting the endowed professorship tribology of Prof. C. GACHOT at the TU Wien (Grant No. WST3-F-5031370/001-2017) in collaboration with AC2T research GmbH. D. DINI also acknowledges the support received from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) via his Established Career Fellowship EP/N025954/1.
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G. BOIDI. He is a scientist at AC2T Research GmbH (Austria) from 2019. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of São Paulo (USP — Brazil) in 2019, where he studied the tribological effect of surface irregularities (laser texturing and porosity in sintered materials) under the guidance of Prof. Izabel Fernanda Machado. He was a visitor Ph.D. student for one year at Imperial College London (2018–2019) under the guidance of Prof. Daniele Dini. His research interests involved surface texturing, tribology of powder metallurgy, spark plasma sintering, and sintered bearings and gears.
P.G. GRÜTZMACHER. He received his Ph.D. in materials science in 2019 from Saarland University under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Frank Mücklich (Institute of Functional Materials) for the tribological investigation of multi-scale surface textures. Since 2019, he has been working in Prof. Dr. Carsten Gachot’s tribology group at TU Vienna as a postdoctoral researcher. His current research interests focus on near-surface microstructural development of polycrystalline metals during sliding, tribological mechanisms of 2D materials, and surface engineering.
F.J. PROFITO. He is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and a member of the Surface Phenomena Laboratory in the same institution. His researches are focused on general topics of tribology, especially on lubrication and contact mechanics, computational tribology, surface topography, journal, and sliding bearings, internal combustion engines, and automotive transmissions. He received his B.Eng. (2008), M.Sc. (2010), and D.Sc. (2015) in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. His M.Sc. and D.Sc. researches were focused on the development of mathematical models and numerical simulation tools for predicting the mixed-elastohydrodynamic lubrication performance of journal and sliding bearing systems and piston ring-cylinder liner assemblies. He has three years of experience in the automotive industry as an M.Sc. researcher at MAHLE Research Centre in Brazil. He also spent one year at Imperial College London as a visiting Ph.D. researcher. He also earned two thesis awards from the University of São Paulo (USP/Brazil) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Education Personnel (Capes/Brazil).
I.F. MACHADO. She got her Ph.D. degree (1999) from the University of São Paulo (USP). In 2001, she became a faculty member of USP, and currently holds the position of a associate professor at USP. She researched materials characterization, mechanical and tribological behavior of materials focusing on applications and manufacturing process, which were conducted both experimentally and numerically simulated. She has also researched sintering by means Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), using metal alloys and ceramics for different applications. She was a visiting professor at Trento University (Italy) in 2008 and the University of California-Davis in 2020.
C. GACHOT. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Saarland University in Germany in 2012 where he studied the effects of laser interference patterning on the microstructure and topography of metallic surfaces with a focus on tribological applications under Prof. Dr. Frank Mücklich and Prof. Dr. Martin H. Müser. For this work, he was awarded the European Honda initiation grant in 2011. He was an academic visitor at the tribology Group at the Imperial College London and is currently the head of the tribology research Group at the Vienna University of Technology. Additionally, he is a visiting professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago de Chile and the chief editor of the peer-reviewed journal Industrial Lubrication and Tribology of the Emerald Publishing Group Leeds UK.
D. DINI. He is the head of the Tribology Group at Imperial College London. Prior to joining Imperial College in 2006, he completed his D.Phil. degree in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (2004). His individual research portfolio supports a large team of researchers focused on studies related to the modelling of tribological systems and materials. Most of these projects are multidisciplinary and range from atomic and molecular simulation of lubricants, additives and surfaces to the modelling of systems, such as machine and biomedical components. His group performs fundamental research, while successfully supporting the application of tribology in industry.
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Boidi, G., Grützmacher, P.G., Kadiric, A. et al. Fast laser surface texturing of spherical samples to improve the frictional performance of elasto-hydrodynamic lubricated contacts. Friction 9, 1227–1241 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0462-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0462-4