Numerical Simulation and Experimental Investigation on Friction and Lubrication Behaviors of Chevron Micro-Textured Valve Plate/Cylinder Block Interface With Various Area Densities

Abstract As the critical friction pairs of swashplate-type axial piston pumps, the cylinder block/valve plate lubricating interface is the primary source of friction, wear, and leakage in axial piston pumps. Surface micro-texturing has been widely employed in cylinder block/valve plate conjunctions to ameliorate tribological performance. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the influence of chevron micro-texture area density on the tribological behaviors and lubricating properties of cylinder block/valve plate interface both experimentally and numerically. In this article, the chevron micro-textures with various area densities were manufactured on H62 brass by micro-milling and subsequently characterized with a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM). The friction and wear performance of H62 brass/38CrMoAl conjunctions were obtained via disc-on-disc tribological tests to simulate the cylinder block/valve plate lubricating interface. Moreover, the load-carrying capacity of untextured and chevron micro-textured samples was numerically investigated under hydrodynamic lubrication. It was found that the chevron micro-textured surface with an area density of 30.1% displayed the lowest friction coefficient and the shallowest wear depth. Although the load-carrying capacity of chevron micro-textured samples with a high dimple area density was larger, the severe stress concentration induced by the reduced micro-texture spacing caused the increment and large fluctuations of friction coefficient.