Study of the effect of macrogeometry of rubbing steel bodies at their point contact on the tribological characteristics of lubricants under boundary lubrication conditions

The effect of the shape of contacting nonconformal elements of friction units that form an initial point contact on the tribological characteristics of lubricants during friction in the boundary lubrication mode. Point contact of rubbing bodies is realized on four-ball friction machines when testing tribological characteristics of lubricants in accordance with Russian GOST 9490–75 and GOST 23.221–84 Standards.

However, these tests are carried out with the friction of standard bearing balls and does not allow taking into account the impact of materials of rubbing bodies on the results of the experiment. Therefore, two alternative designs of mandrels were developed, which allow implementation of two friction schemes: «rotating ball clamped in the spindle of the machine – three roller face planes» and «rotating ball — three cylindrical rollers». The load on the friction unit for both friction schemes, as well as in parallel on the mandrel under testing, in which three balls are installed, is the same (108 N), the spindle rotation speed is equal to 1 rpm, duration of testing is 60 min. The diameter of balls used in these experiments was 12.7 mm, and diameters of rollers were 5 and 8 mm, respectively. The material of samples was ShKh-15 tool steel or its 100Cr6 analogue. The designs of mandrels and the dimensions of samples were chosen in such a way that in all cases the contact areas of the experimental samples with the wearing (upper) ball would lie on a circle with a diameter of 7.32 mm. The tests were carried out under dry friction, and in boundary lubricated conditions in a PAO-4 polyalphaolefin oil medium, as well as in the same oil medium with the additives of oleic acid and DF-11 (a solution of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate in a low-viscosity oil). It is shown that the composition of a lubricating medium has a decisive effect on the test results (i.e., on the values of the friction coefficients and on the values of the areas of wear scars), while the geometry of the rubbing bodies, as well as the maximum Hertz stresses in the tribological contact, had a little effect on the antifriction and anti-wear characteristics of oils.

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