Effects of groove textures on fully lubricated sliding with cavitation

A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to investigate the effects of groove textures on fully lubricated sliding with cavitation. The effects of cavitation pressure, sliding speed, sliding pitch angle and texture scale were discussed. It was found that the hydrodynamic pressure effect becomes more pronounced with higher cavitation pressure, and the hydrodynamic pressure decreases with the reduction of the sliding speed. Also with a sliding pitch angle, the hydrodynamic pressure is dependent on both pocket and wedge effects. Increasing groove number and reducing the groove size enhances the overall load capacity, but has a little effect on friction coefficient.

► Higher cavitation pressure, higher hydrodynamic pressure. ► Higher sliding speed, lower friction coefficient. ► Both pocket and wedge effects affect the hydrodynamic pressure for pitched sliding. ► Multiple size-reduced grooves enhance load capacity but not friction coefficient.