Cooperative effect of surface alloying and laser texturing on tribological performance of lubricated surfaces

The cooperative effect of laser surface texturing(LST) and double glow plasma surface alloying on tribological performance of lubricated sliding contacts was investigated.A Nd:YAG laser was used to generate microdimples on steel surfaces. Dimples with the diameter of 150μm and the depth of 30-35μm distributed circumferentially on the disc surface.The alloying element Cr was sputtered to the laser texturing steel surface by double glow plasma technique.A deep diffusion layer with a thickness of 30μm and a high hardness of HV900 was formed in this alloy.Tribological experiments of three types of samples(smooth,texturing and texturing+alloying) were conducted with a ring-on-disc tribometer to simulate the face seal.It is found that,in comparison with smooth steel surfaces,the laser texturing samples significantly reduce the friction coefficient.Moreover,the lower wear rate of the sample treated with the two surface techniques is observed.

Application of response surface method for contact fatigue reliability analysis of spur gear with consideration of EHL

In order to consider the effects of elastohydrodynamic lubrication(EHL) on contact fatigue reliability of spur gear, an accurate and efficient method that combines with response surface method(RSM) and first order second moment method(FOSM) was developed for estimating the contact fatigue reliability of spur gear under EHL. The mechanical model of contact stress analysis of spur gear under EHL was established, in which the oil film pressure was mapped into hertz contact zone. Considering the randomness of EHL, material properties and fatigue strength correction factors, the proposed method was used to analyze the contact fatigue reliability of spur gear under EHL. Compared with the results of 1.5×105 by traditional Monte-Carlo, the difference between the two failure probability results calculated by the above mentioned methods is 2.2×10-4, the relative error of the failure probability results is 26.8%, and time-consuming only accounts for 0.14% of the traditional Monte-Carlo method(MCM). Sensitivity analysis results are in very good agreement with practical cognition. Analysis results show that the proposed method is precise and efficient, and could correctly reflect the influence of EHL on contact fatigue reliability of spur gear.

Non-linear Dynamics of Inlet Film Thickness during Unsteady Rolling Process

The inlet film thickness directly affects film and stress distribution of rolling interfaces. Unsteady factors, such as unsteady back tension, may disturb the inlet film thickness. However, the current models of unsteady inlet film thickness lack unsteady disturbance factors and do not take surface topography into consideration. In this paper, based on the hydrodynamic analysis of inlet zone an unsteady rolling film model which concerns the direction of surface topography is built up. Considering the small fluctuation of inlet angle, absolute reduction, reduction ratio, inlet strip thickness and roll radius as the input variables and the fluctuation of inlet film thickness as the output variable, the non-linear relationship between the input and output is discussed. The discussion results show that there is 180° phase difference between the inlet film thickness and the input variables, such as the fluctuant absolute reduction, the fluctuant reduction ratio and non-uniform inlet strip thickness, but there is no phase difference between unsteady roll radius and the output. The inlet angle, the steady roll radius and the direction of surface topography have significant influence on the fluctuant amplitude of unsteady inlet film thickness. This study proposes an analysis method for unsteady inlet film thickness which takes surface topography and new disturbance factors into consideration.

Magnetocontrollable droplet mobility on liquid crystal-infused porous surfaces

Magnetocontrollable droplet mobility on surfaces of both solids and simple fluids have been widely used in a wide range of applications.However,little is understood about the effect of the magnetic field on the wettability and mobility of droplets on structured fluids.Here,we report the manipulation of the dynamic behaviors of water droplets on a film of thermotropic liquid crystals(LCs).We find that the static wetting behavior and static friction of water droplets on a 4’-octyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile(8CB)film strongly depend on the LC mesophases,and that a magnetic field caused no measurable change to these properties.However,we find that the droplet dynamics can be affected by a magnetic field as it slides on a nematic 8CB film,but not on isotropic 8CB,and is dependent on both the direction and strength of the magnetic field.By measuring the dynamic friction of a droplet sliding on a nematic 8CB film,we find that a magnetic field alters the internal orientational ordering of the 8CB which in turn affects its viscosity.We support this interpretation with a scaling argument using the LC magnetic coherence length that includes(i)the elastic energy from the long-range orientational ordering of 8CB and(ii)the free energy from the interaction between 8CB and a magnetic field.Overall,these results advance our understanding of droplet mobility on LC films and enable new designs for responsive surfaces that can manipulate the mobility of water droplets.

Entropy generation applications in flow of viscoelastic nanofluid past a lubricated disk in presence of nonlinear thermal radiation and Joule heating

Entropy generation is the loss of energy in thermodynamical systems due to resistive forces,diffusion processes,radiation effects and chemical reactions.The main aim of this research is to address entropy generation due to magnetic field,nonlinear thermal radiation,viscous dissipation,thermal diffusion and nonlinear chemical reaction in the transport of viscoelastic fluid in the vicinity of a stagnation point over a lubricated disk.The conservation laws of mass and momentum along with the first law of thermodynamics and Fick’s law are used to discuss the flow,heat and mass transfer,while the second law of thermodynamics is used to analyze the entropy and irreversibility.The numbers of independent variables in the modeled set of nonlinear partial differential equations are reduced using similarity variables and the resulting system is numerically approximated using the Keller box method.The effects of thermophoresis,Brownian motion and the magnetic parameter on temperature are presented for lubricated and rough disks.The local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are documented for both linear and nonlinear thermal radiation and lubricated and rough disks.Graphical representations of the entropy generation number and Bejan number for various parameters are also shown for lubricated and rough disks.The concentration of nanoparticles at the lubricated surface reduces with the magnetic parameter and Brownian motion.The entropy generation declines for thermophoresis diffusion and Brownian motion when lubrication effects are dominant.It is concluded that both entropy generation and the magnitude of the Bejan number increase in the presence of slip.The current results present many applications in the lubrication phenomenon,heating processes,cooling of devices,thermal engineering,energy production,extrusion processes etc.