The Influence of Surface Texturing on the Film Thickness in Starved Lubricated Parallel Sliding Contacts

In industrial applications, a starved lubrication condition may occur, leading to a reduction in film thickness; by modifying the surface geometry, the tribological performance of the contact is enhanced. In this paper, the influence of surface texturing as a method for reducing the friction on the film thickness in parallel sliding surfaces for starved lubricated contacts is investigated. The results in this study have shown that surface texturing can improve film formation for starved lubricated contacts and, respectively, the load carrying capacity. The effect of starvation on several texturing patterns with several texturing properties was investigated and the film thickness for these conditions was studied. With the numerical algorithm developed and taking cavitation into consideration, the effect of shape, depth, size, and texture pitch on the film thickness was studied.