A Study on the Influence of Micro Surface Texture on Mixed EHL Friction

In this work, the impact of the surface micro-dimple arrays on the frictional behavior under the mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication condition is examined, considering a point contact problem. The interested geometric parameters of the micro-dimple arrays include the dimple center distance and the dimple depth. To quantify the influence of these parameters on the friction coefficient, a computational approach is implemented. In addition, different surface texture combinations, namely micro-dimpled and polished surface versus polished surface, polished surface versus polished surface and ground surface versus ground surface, are compared to determine any advantage or disadvantage of micro-dimpled surfaces on the aspect of the friction performance under the typical gearing application operating conditions.