R. Wahl, K.-H. Zum Gahr, J. Schneider

Tribologie + Schmierungstechnik,
Band 57 [1], Seiten 12-16 (2010)

A more fundamentally oriented study was carried out on steel 100Cr6/sapphire pairs with polished or microtextured functional surfaces of the steel sliding unidirectionally under oil lubrication up to a velocity of 0.30 m/s against the polished ceramic. Crossed microchannels with variations of area fraction, width and depth of the channels were used as texture pattern with respect to applications in wet-running friction systems. The aim was to achieve a deeper knowledge of the correlation between texture or experimental parameters and oil film or friction behaviour. This is needed to design an optimised microtexture on a functional surface for a special application. A theoretical model was developed that describes the effect of texturing using microchannels on oil film thickness and friction coefficient in relation to a polished surface without a texture.