Combined analytical and experimental evaluation of frictional performance of lubricated untextured and partially textured sliders

The study of textured surface performance is one of the highly researched topics in recent times. This is mainly due to the advantages that such surfaces can potentially provide in practice, in mitigating adverse tribological conditions, such as friction and wear. However, considering the complexities found in practice, a methodological analysis and evaluation procedure is essential in order to gain an understanding of the benefits from utilising such features in a given contact. The current study provides a combined analytical and experimental approach towards an enhanced understanding of the behaviour of textured surfaces relative to their untextured counterparts. The developed analytical models are invaluable in providing an insight into the relationship between the many parameters involved in defining even simple surface texture feature geometry and the expected outcomes in practice, when corroborated with experimental results. The current study reports on such an endeavour. With the studied texture configuration, the results have shown the possibility of reducing friction by as much as 25%.