Two dimensional nanoscale reciprocating sliding contacts of textured surfaces

Detailed behaviors of nanoscale textured surfaces during the reciprocating sliding contacts are still unknown although they are widely used in mechanical components to improve tribological characteristics. The current research of sliding contacts of textured surfaces mainly focuses on the experimental studies, while the cost is too high. Molecular dynamics(MD) simulation is widely used in the studies of nanoscale single-pass sliding contacts, but the CPU cost of MD simulation is also too high to simulate the reciprocating sliding contacts. In this paper, employing multiscale method which couples molecular dynamics simulation and finite element method, two dimensional nanoscale reciprocating sliding contacts of textured surfaces are investigated. Four textured surfaces with different texture shapes are designed, and a rigid cylindrical tip is used to slide on these textured surfaces. For different textured surfaces, average potential energies and average friction forces of the corresponding sliding processes are analyzed. The analyzing results show that "running-in" stages are different for each texture, and steady friction processes are discovered for textured surfaces II, III and IV. Texture shape and sliding direction play important roles in reciprocating sliding contacts, which influence average friction forces greatly. This research can help to design textured surfaces to improve tribological behaviors in nanoscale reciprocating sliding contacts.