Influence of roughness on contact interface in fretting under dry and boundary lubricated sliding regimes

This paper presents experimental results of wear process under dry and boundary lubricated metallic (AISI 1034/AISI 52100) contacting bodies with different surfaces morphologies subjected to a wide range of kinematic fretting conditions. Analysis of damage mode observed under such fretting conditions is elucidated in context of surfaces morphologies therefore associated with surface manufacturing processes. Various surface topographies due to specific machining processes (cutting and abrasive modes) have been investigated. Under boundary lubricated (ZDDTP zinc-dialkyl-dithiophosphate) fretting contact paradoxally has a high coefficient of friction at the transition between Partial and Full slip sliding regime. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between the damage mode, sliding conditions and surface roughness to provide an approach to evaluate the surface finishing as a factor in friction and wear damage processes

Interface roughness effect on friction map under fretting contact conditions

In many industrial applications where fretting damage is observed in the contact (e.g. rotor/blade, electrical contacts, assembly joint, axe/wheel, clutch) the external loadings or geometry design cannot be changed. Therefore, the surface preparation and finishing process become essential to control and reduce the damage caused by fretting. In this paper, the authors present the experimental study of the initial surface roughness and machining process influence on fretting conditions in both partial and full sliding regimes. Surfaces prepared by milling and smooth abrasive polishing processes have been analysed. The influence of roughness on sliding behaviour and analysis of friction have been reported. Also, the contact pressure influence and qualitative analysis of fretting wear scar have been presented

Wetting of anisotropic sinusoidal surfaces - experimental and numerical study of directional spreading

Directional wettability, i.e. variation of wetting properties depending on the surface orientation, can be achieved by anisotropic surface texturing. A new high precision process can produce homogeneous sinusoidal surfaces (in particular parallel grooves) at the micro-scale, with a nano-scale residual roughness five orders of magnitude smaller than the texture features. Static wetting experiments have shown that this pattern, even with a very small aspect ratio, can induce a strong variation of contact angle depending on the direction of observation. A comparison with numerical simulations (using Surface Evolver software) shows good agreement and could be used to predict the fluid-solid interaction and droplet behaviour on textured surfaces. Two primary mechanisms of directional spreading of water droplets on textured stainless steel surface have been identified. The first one is the mechanical barrier created by the textured surface peaks, this limits spreading in perpendicular direction to the surface anisotropy. The second one is the capillary action inside the sinusoidal grooves accelerating spreading along the grooves. Spreading has been shown to depend strongly on the history of wetting and internal drop dynamics

Surface morphology in engineering applications: Influence of roughness on sliding and wear in dry fretting

Influence of initial surface roughness on friction and wear processes under fretting conditions was investigated experimentally. Rough surfaces (Ra=0.15-2.52 [mu]m) were prepared on two materials: carbon alloy (AISI 1034) and titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). Strong influence of initial surface roughness on friction and wear processes is reported for both tested materials. Lower coefficient of friction and increase in wear rate was observed for rough surfaces. Wear activation energy is increasing for smoother surfaces. Lower initial roughness of surface subjected to gross slip fretting can delay activation of wear process and reduce wear rate; however, it can slightly increase the coefficient of friction

Impact of morphological furrows as lubricant reservoir on creation of oleophilic and oleophobic behaviour of metallic surfaces in scuffing

This paper analyses the key role of the surface morphology in the creation of oleophilic or oleophobic behaviour (via oil capacity) of metallic surfaces and its hypothetical influence on the initiation of the catastrophic mechanism of scuffing. Taking into consideration the fact that the commonly used roughness parameters do not correlate with the scuffing performance, the application of the morphological furrows to analysis of the susceptibility of metallic surfaces to this type of surface failure was proposed and elucidated. Furrows characteristic was based on the analysis of their three typical parameters (max. and mean depth and max. density, in the initial and scuffed surface state) in the mechanical and physicochemical aspects of the surface and lubricant relationship. Improved strategy offering the discriminating methodology of scuffing transition was presented and discussed. Obtained results enabled the identification furrows' parameters predisposed to scuffing prediction and therefore worthy to consideration for use in manufacturing of frictional operating metallic parts exposed to catastrophic failures

Wettability versus roughness of engineering surfaces

Wetting of real engineering surfaces occurs in many industrial applications (liquid coating, lubrication, printing, painting, ...). Forced and natural wetting can be beneficial in many cases, providing lubrication and therefore reducing friction and wear. However the wettability of surfaces can be strongly affected by surface roughness. This influence can be very significant for static and dynamic wetting [1]. In this paper authors experimentally investigate the roughness influence on contact angle measurements and propose a simple model combining Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter theories with simple 2D roughness profile analysis. The modelling approach is applied to real homogeneous anisotropic surfaces, manufactured on a wide range of engineering materials including aluminium alloy, iron alloy, copper, ceramic, plastic (poly-methylmethacrylate: PMMA) and titanium alloy

Wear resistant multilayer nanocomposite WC1−x/C coating on Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

A significant improvement of tribological properties on Ti–6Al–4V has been achieved by developed in this study multilayer treatment method for the titanium alloys. This treatment consists of an intermediate 2 μm thick TiCxNy layer which has been deposited by the reactive arc evaporation onto a diffusion hardened material with interstitial O or N atoms by glow discharge plasma in the atmosphere of Ar+O2 or Ar+N2. Subsequently, an external 0.3 μm thin nanocomposite carbon-based WC1−x/C coating has been deposited by a reactive magnetron sputtering of graphite and tungsten targets. The morphology, microstructure, chemical and phase compositions of the substrate material after treatment and coating deposition have been investigated with use of AFM, SEM, EDX, XRD, 3D profilometry and followed by tribological investigation of wear and friction analysis. An increase of hardness in the diffusion treated near-surface zone of the Ti–6Al–4V substrate has been achieved. In addition, a good adhesion between the intermediate gradient TiCxNy coating and the Ti–6Al–4V substrate as well as with the external nanocomposite coating has been obtained. Significant increase in wear resistance of up to 94% when compared to uncoated Ti–6Al–4V was reported. The proposed multilayer system deposited on the Ti–6Al–4V substrate is a promising method to significantly increase wear resistance of titanium alloys

Dropwise condensation heat transfer process optimisation on superhydrophobic surfaces using a multi-disciplinary approach

Dropwise condensation has superior heat transfer efficiency than filmwise condensation; however condensate evacuation from the surface still remains a significant technological challenge. The process of droplets jumping, against adhesive forces, from a solid surface upon coalescence has been studied using both experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. Both Lattice Boltzmann (LBM) and Volume of Fluid (VOF) methods have been used to evaluate different kinematic conditions of coalescence inducing a jump velocity. In this paper, an optimisation framework for superhydrophobic surface designs is presented which uses experimentally verified high fidelity CFD analyses to identify optimal combinations of design features which maximise desirable characteristics such as the vertical velocity of the merged jumping droplet from the surface and energy efficiency. A Radial Basis Function (RBF)-based surrogate modelling approach using design of experiment (DOE) technique was used to establish near-optimal initial process parameters around which to focus the study. This multidisciplinary approach allows us to evaluate the jumping phenomenon for superhydrophobic surfaces for which several input parameters may be varied, so as to improve the heat transfer exchange rate on the surface during condensation. Reliable conditions were found to occur for droplets within initial radius range of r=20-40 μm and static contact angle θs~160º. Moreover, the jumping phenomenon was observed for droplets with initial radius of up to 500 μm. Lastly, our study also reveals that a critical contact angle for droplets to jump upon coalescence is θc~140º

Physique des Solides et Morphologie des Surfaces

PHYSICS OF SOLIDS AND MORPHOLOGY OF SURFACES: The morphology of surfaces is now an important field of research because of its direct connection with the industrial activity like manufacturing and optimising of functional criteria through complicated interfacial phenomena. Presently, characterization of the surface morphology, via the profile metrology, is well modelled by a statistical description. The use of shape morphological parameters allows to identify features of the surface structures generated by the process techniques and the emergence of the different phases of the condensed matter. Starting from the solid state background knowledge, prediction of the surface morphology appears as a tedious way. However, progress in the science of the solids formation and industrial requirements promises the best future for the physicists in such a new technological activity. Philosophy and basic formalism of that approach is presented here