Abstract:

In order to reveal the effects of surface texture on the tribological performances of bearings for the microtextureoptimization design,the velocity slip boundary was used to characterize the comprehensive effect of the macroscopic/microscopic interaction and was applied to bearing surfaces with controlled micro-patterns or textures.Then,the effects of such macroscopic parameters as the surface texture location and area on the friction force andthe load-carrying capacity of slider bearing were investigated. Theoretical analysis results show that surface texture,especially the texture with larger area,may decrease the friction force,that the drag reduction is independent of thelocation of surface texture at low speeds,but at high speeds is more significant when the surface texture is locatednear the outlet,that the surface texture location,especially the dimensionless locations of the starting and theending points of the textured region,significantly influences the load-carrying capacity in a complex mode,thatfully-textured surface may significantly decrease the load-carrying capacity,that a surface texture near the inlethelps to improve the load-carrying capacity,while a surface texture near the outlet may decrease the load-carryingcapacity. All these above-mentioned statements indicate that a well-designed surface texture may significantlyimprove the tribological performances of bearings.

Key words: surface texture, slider bearing, tribological performance, velocity slip, friction force, load-carrying capacity