Lubrication and wear characteristics of bionic composite texture on friction pair under seawater condition

Abstract To improve the lubrication bearing capacity of the slipper pair of axial piston pump under seawater lubrication, a bionic composite texture (ball pit-ball convex) was designed based on the non-smooth surface structure of dung beetle, and friction and wear experiments were carried out with CF/PEEK and 316L stainless steel. Thirteen groups of experiments with different parameters and structure sizes were designed and studied. The surface morphology of materials under different structural sizes and test parameters were observed, and the lubrication and wear characteristics were analyzed. The results show that the cavitation effect can increase the total compressive capacity of the bionic composite texture by 51.2% and reduce the friction coefficient by 53.3%, and the diameter and area ratio of the ball pit have the most obvious influence on the bearing performance. It is also found that the bionic composite texture has better anti-friction performance than the single texture because it has the function of storing wear chips. This study is of great significance to improve the bearing capacity and efficiency of seawater hydraulic axial piston pump, and also provides a certain reference value for the research of non-smooth surface in other fields.