Effects of surface roughness on sliding friction in lubricated-point contacts: Experimental and numerical studies

The objective of the present work is to investigate experimentally and numerically the influences of surface roughness, produced by typical machining processes, on friction performances in lubricated-point contacts. Prior to the full experimental investigation, a series of tests had been conducted to examine the experimental errors, resulting from repeated tests on the same specimen but at different tracks, with different amounts of lubricant supply, or after the sample reinstallation. Then, the effects of amplitude and texture of surface roughness on friction behavior are investigated in rotational and reciprocal-mode tests, respectively. The measured friction, averaged over the repeated tests and plotted as a function of sliding speed, shows Stribeck-type curves, which manifest the transition from full-film, mixed, to boundary lubrication. Results show that the roughness amplitude imposes a strong influence on the magnificence of friction and the route of lubrication transition. It is also observed that transverse roughness would give rise to a smaller friction coefficient than the longitudinal one under the same operating conditions. Moreover the deterministic numerical solution of mixed lubrication has been extended to evaluate friction between rough surfaces over a wide range of lubrication regimes. The numerical simulation results are compared and agree very well with experiments.