• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.363-367
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• 2009

Recently, the manufacturing of micro-cavity by means of laser surface texturing (LST) technique and low friction study by the LST have been in great progress. Most of current works have been dealing with the effect of cavity on friction and wear. The main objective of the present study was to investigate numerically two-dimensional lubrication characteristics of micro-dimple shapes fabricated on solid surfaces, and this study utilized the commercial CFD code (Fluent V.6.3). For the evaluation, preliminary simulation was conducted and numerical predictions were compared with the analytic solution obtained from the Reynolds's equation. Mainly, the present study investigated the influence of dimple depth, pattern shapes, and film thickness on lubrication characteristics related to the reduction of friction. It is found that the existence of micro-dimpled surface makes it possible to substantially reduce the friction forces exerted on the surfaces. In particular, substantial decrease in shear stresses was observed as the lubricant film thickness decreases. For instance, in the case of the film thickness of 0.01 mm, the estimated shear stress decreases up to about 40%. It indicates that the film thickness would be important factor in designing the micro-dimpled surfaces. Furthermore, it was observed that such a optimum dimple depth would be present because the dimple depth larger than the optimum value did no longer affect the reduction in shear stresses.