Effect of surface texturing on tribological properties of Babbitt alloy

To improve tribology properties of journal bearing under mixed lubrication, rectangular and linear radiation array textures were fabricated on the Tin base Babbitt alloy surface. Pin-on-disk tribometer and numerical simulation method were employed to investigate the lubrication behavior and mechanism of textured surface. Friction coefficient of textured surface under variation sliding velocities and contact pressure were discussed. The film pressure distributions of textured surfaces were simulated using CFD method. The results suggest that friction coefficient is reduced by the textured surface under mixed lubrication, and the improvement effect is more significantly with the increase of sliding velocity or the decrease of contact pressure. Friction coefficient of rectangular array textured surface is lower and more stable than that of linear radiation textured surface. A density of 8.6% textured surface has the lowest friction coefficient, which is as low as 0.015 at sliding velocity of 0.3 m/s and contact pressure of 5.0 MPa. Simulation analysis results demonstrate that the oil film pressure distribution on the rectangular array texture can reduce the oil leakage to obtain better tribological properties, comparing with that on the linear radiation array textures.