Running-in Test and Fractal Methodology for Worn Surface Topography Characterization

Studying and understanding of the surface topography variation are the basis for analyzing tribological problems,and characterization of worn surface is necessary.Fractal geometry offers a more accurate description for surface roughness that topographic surfaces are statistically self-similar and can be quantitatively evaluated by fractal parameters.The change regularity of worn surface topography is one of the most important aspects of running-in study.However,the existing research normally adopts only one friction matching pair to explore the surface topography change,which interrupts the running-in wear process and makes the experimental result lack authenticity and objectivity.In this paper,to investigate the change regularity of surface topography during the real running-in process,a series of running-in tests by changing friction pairs under the same operating conditions are conducted on UMT-II Universal Multifunction Tester.The surface profile data are acquired by MiaoXAM2.5X-50X Ultrahigh Precision Surface 3D Profiler and analyzed using fractal dimension D,scale coefficient C and characteristic roughness Ra ＊based on root mean square（RMS） method.The characterization effects of the three parameters are discussed and compared.The results obtained show that there exists remarkable fractal feature of surface topography during running-in process,both D and Ra ＊increase gradually,while C decreases slowly as the wear-in process goes on,and all parameters tend to be stable when the wear process steps into the normal wear process.Ra ＊illustrates higher sensitivity for rough surface characterization compared with the other two parameters.In addition,the running-in test carried with a set of identical surface properties is more scientific and reasonable than the traditional one.The proposed research further indicates that the fractal method can quantitatively measure the rough surface,which also provides an evidence for running-in process identification and tribology design.

Surface roughness characteristics effects on fluid load capability of tilt pad thrust bearings with water lubrication

The effects of surface roughness characteristics on the fluid load capacity of tilt pad thrust bearings with water lubrication were studied by the average flow model.The flow factors utilized in the average flow model were simulated with various surface roughness parameters including skewness,kurtosis and the roughness directional pattern.The results indicated that the fluid load capacity was not only affected by the RMS roughness but also by the surface roughness characteristics.The fluid load capacity was dramatically affected by the roughness directional pattern.The skewness had a lower effect than the roughness directional pattern.The kurtosis had no notable effect on the fluid load capacity.It was possible for the fluid load capacity of the tilt pad thrust bearings to be improved by the skewness and roughness direction pattern control.

A LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF CHARACTERISTICS OF TORNADO-LIKE VORTICES OVER VARIOUS ROUGH SURFACES

In this paper,the effects of surface roughness on tornado-like vortices are studied in the laboratory for simulating tornado vortex at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute,Kyoto University,Japan. In the experiments,the distribution of the horizontal wind speed and direction at five different heights were measured with a hot-wire anemometer and a mini-vane.The characteristics of wind speed and direc- tion distribution for the tornado vortex on the various rough surfaces were first revealed with the simulative method in laboratory.By changing the swirl ratio(S=tanθ/2a)of simulation device,it is found that,the size of tornado-like vortex core will become almost identical,as the swirl ratio S exceeds a certain value (S>1.5). The experimental results can be used not only to explain the observed facts in the atmosphere but also to provide the experimental bases for some theoretical studies.