Abstract
Surface texturing has been a hot topic among the tribology community in recent years. Shrinking of non-renewable sources and an increase in demand for instruments and devices in various automobile and industrial sectors have led to the importance of controlled wear with low friction. Thus, it is essential to improve the tribological performance of mechanical systems like cutting tools, piston rings and cylinder liners, sealing and journal bearings. In this book chapter, we investigate the tribological performance, mainly lubricant pressure and stress distribution, between the load and the textured cylinder by introducing grooves on the cylinder and also by varying the lubricant viscosities as well as the applied load through simulation studies. A model is developed using COMSOL Multiphysics®, and the tribological performance using various parameters is investigated. The initial study deals with non-textured cylinders. This study is compared with textured plates where we introduce grooves 20 to 100 μm deep. Similar studies are also carried out using variable loads and by varying the rotational speed of the cylinder. Finally, an optimum groove depth is obtained by studying the variation of lubricant pressure in the presence of constant lubricant viscosity, applied load and cylindrical rotational speed.