Numerical study on the lubrication performance of compression ring-cylinder liner system with spherical dimples

PLoS One. 2017 Jul 21;12(7):e0181574. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181574. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The effects of surface texture on the lubrication performance of a compression ring-cylinder liner system are studied in this paper. By considering the surface roughness of the compression ring and cylinder liner, a mixed lubrication model is presented to investigate the tribological behaviors of a barrel-shaped compression ring-cylinder liner system with spherical dimples on the liner. In order to determine the rupture and reformulation positions of fluid film accurately, the Jacoboson-Floberg-Olsson (JFO) cavitation boundary condition is applied to the mixed lubrication model for ensuring the mass-conservative law. On this basis, the minimum oil film thickness and average friction forces in the compression ring-cylinder liner system are investigated under the engine-like conditions by changing the dimple area density, radius, and depth. The wear load, average friction forces, and power loss of the compression ring-cylinder liner system with and without dimples are also compared for different compression ring face profiles. The results show that the spherical dimples can produce a larger reduction of friction in mixed lubrication region, and reduce power loss significantly in the middle of the strokes. In addition, higher reduction percentages of average friction forces and wear are obtained for smaller crown height or larger axial width.

MeSH terms

  • Lubrication / methods*
  • Models, Biological
  • Pressure
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Surface Properties
  • Weight-Bearing

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51375380), Open project of State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures of China (Grant no. SV2016-KF-10), Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant no. 2014JM2-5082), and Scientific Research Program of Shaanxi Provincial Education Department of China (Grant no. 15JS068). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.