The roughness and lubrication of the contact surfaces play a major role in
determining the contact forces and the coefficient of friction during contact
between the two parts. The objective of the research, the results of which
are presented in this paper, was to establish what, in fact, is the influence of
those two important parameters on the surface properties of the shotpeened C35 steel specimens. Another important aspect that was considered
was the influence of the post-treatment of the shot-peened specimen
surfaces, the fine grinding. The experimental work included verification of
the steel’s chemical composition (as compared to the standard values), the
heat treatment, evaluation of the material’s microstructure, measurement
of the mechanical properties, the shot-peening treatment and evaluation of
the magnitude of the compressive residual stresses, measurement of the
surface roughness profiles and the friction tests. An effect of the surface
roughness and lubricant on the coefficient of friction (CoF) was established.
The CoF values of the dry shot-peened steel surface after the fine grinding,
as compared to the unground surface, decreased from about 30% to 39%.
The application of lubricant caused the CoF to decrease by 66% and 43% for
the ground and unground surfaces, respectively
