Effects of different surface textures on tribological performances of the cylinder liner-piston ring: An experimental study

The tribological performance of internal combustion engines (ICEs) has an important impact on fuel efficiency and power consumption, and the wear of cylinder liner-piston ring (CLPR) system affects the operation reliability. The surface texture of CLPR can significantly improve the tribological performance of ICEs. Aiming at the friction and wear of CLPR, the different textures (dimple, equilateral triangle and square) are generated on the CLPR using laser processing, and the different tests are conducted on the UMT-TriboLab tester. The coefficient of friction, wear topography, surface roughness parameters and profiles are measured. The results show that, compared with the non-textured surface, the dimple texture surface of piston ring or cylinder liner has better tribological performance. If the textures coexist on the cylinder liner and piston ring, the tribological performances are better than single surface texture. Furthermore, the mixed textures can significantly improve the surface lubrication performance and the ability to store abrasive particles, and better surface quality can be obtained at the same operating conditions to enhance the tribological performance. This study can provide guidance for reducing the friction and wear of CLPR system of ICEs, and achieve energy saving and emission reduction of ICEs.

Automated summary

The tribological performance of internal combustion engines (ICEs) has a significant impact on fuel efficiency and power consumption. The wear of the cylinder liner-piston ring (CLPR) system affects operation reliability. This study focuses on improving the tribological performance of ICEs by generating different textures on the CLPR surface through laser processing. The results show that dimple texture surfaces have better tribological performance and the coexistence of textures improves surface lubrication and abrasive particle storage.