Numerische Auslegung von Oberflächenmikrotexturen für geschmierte tribologische Kontakte

Description

Despite the large numbers of experimental and theoretical investigations in literature, the approach of surface micro-texturing to control friction and wear of tribological contacts is still in a trial-and-error phase. The main reason for the lack of industrial scale implementation is that the tribological behavior and advantageous micro-texture geometries and arrangements largely depend on the contact type and the operating conditions. Within the scope of this thesis, a methodology for designing micro-textures was developed. The main focus was on simulation models for the numerical prediction of the tribological behavior of micro-textures in lubricated contacts based on the Finite Element Method. The possibility of tailor-made micro-texture designs was provided by a meta-model of optimal prognosis in combination with evolutionary optimization algorithms. The suitability and validity of these approaches have been demonstrated by application to various hydrodynamic, hard and soft elastohydrodynamic contacts from the model to the component level, as well as by accompanying experimental investigations. In the future, the implementation in commercially available software as well as the development of generalized design guidelines will allow the broad usability by researchers and engineers for various applications.