Effects of surface texturing on the tribological behavior of piston rings under lubricated conditions

Abstract

Purpose – The piston ring-cylinder liner pair is one of the most important tribological systems of an internal combustion engine. The friction loss of the piston ring-cylinder liner pair accounts for the largest portion of total efficiency losses. Therefore, improving the tribological system design of the piston ring-cylinder liner pair can reduce friction losses and bring tremendous economic benefits to society. This paper aims use surface texturing, which is proving to be an effective method, for improving the tribological performance of sliding surfaces. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, an experimental study using a pin-on-disk tribometer was carried out to evaluate the effects of surface texturing on friction reduction of piston rings under various loads and sliding velocities. Rectangular- and circular-shaped textures with different depths and area densities were produced by a Femtosecond laser. Comparison experiments were conducted with un-textured rings. Findings – The results indicate that the friction performance of the ring surface was significantly improved by surface texturing, and the running-in stage was also shortened. More specifically, it was found that the rectangular-shaped texture had a better effect on friction reduction than the circular-shaped texture. Results also indicate that an optimum texture density existed for the rectangular-shaped texture. Additionally, it was observed that the average friction coefficient reduction of the textured ring decreased with increasing load and increased with increasing sliding velocity. Originality/value – Consequently, these findings provide a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between micro-textures and tribological properties of piston rings in lubricating sliding.

Effect of laser surface texturing on tribological properties of polyimide composites in the application of traveling wave rotary ultrasonic motor

“…A great deal of research has been done to study the effect of surface texturing on tribological properties of material (Kang et al , 2015; Xing et al , 2013; Dawit Zenebe Segu, 2016; Zhang et al , 2016). The results show that the shape, area density and distribution of surface texturing have a great effect on the tribological properties of material.…”

Tribological behavior of co-textured cylinder liner-piston ring during running-in

“…Kligerman et al [25] developed an analytical model to evaluate the optimum dimple parameters such as dimple depth, texture area density, and textured portion of the nominal contact surface of a piston ring. Shen and Khonsari [26] and Zhang et al [27] conducted the experiments and discovered that (i) the friction performance of the ring surface improved significantly via surface texturing, (ii) the running-in duration shortened, and (iii) the sealing performance improved.…”

Influence of micro-groove attributes on frictional power loss and load-carrying capacity of hybrid thrust bearing

“…In addition to this, these tiny features also act as pits for wear debris and provide additional lubricant supply under starved lubrication conditions (Gachot et al , 2017). In the past two decades, numerous studies have been undertaken to explore the usefulness of surface texturing gas seals (Kligerman and Etsion, 2001), flat land thrust bearing (Brizmer et al , 2003), piston rings (Zhang et al , 2016), etc. These studies reported a significant enhancement in load supporting capacity and reduction in friction coefficient between the sliding surfaces.…”