Tribological behaviors of stator rubber with hexagonal micro-texture and enclosed groove of bionic honeycomb structure

The model of hydrodynamic lubrication in the flow field was developed by coupling of hexagonal micro-texture and enclosed groove with a bionic honeycomb structure. The lubrication performance and friction characteristics of the friction pair between the stator and rotor of a screw pump were evaluated on the simulated and experimental results of high acrylonitrile rubber. As the groove depth increased, the cavitation effect and increasing vortex energy losses weakened the friction reduction and wear resistance. An additional bucket-shaped vortex flow was formed beneath the original vortex in the double wedge-shaped overlapping groove, while a new dustpan-shaped divergent flow was formed in the single wedge-shaped boundary groove. Tiny erosion pits were present at the outer edges of the groove bottom after immersion. Slight wear marks were observed on the rubber surface, with fatigue peeling in the texture chamfers, thereby deepening wear marks in some parts of the extended texture region.