Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the wear behaviour of different materials for cylinder liners and piston rings in a linear reciprocating tribometer with special focus on the wear of the cylinder liner in the boundary lubrication regime. Design/methodology/approach: Conventional nitrided steel, as well as diamond-like carbon and chromium nitride-coated piston rings, were tested against cast iron, AlSi and Fe-coated AlSi cylinder liners. The experiments were carried out with samples produced from original engine parts to have the original surface topography available. Radioactive tracer isotopes were used to measure cylinder liner wear continuously, enabling separation of running-in and steady-state wear. Findings: A ranking of the material pairings with respect to wear behaviour of the cylinder liner was found. Post-test inspection of the cylinder samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed differences in the wear mechanisms for the different material combinations. The results show that the running-in and steady-state wear of the liners can be reduced by choosing the appropriate material for the piston ring. Originality/value: The use of original engine parts in a closely controlled tribometer environment under realistic loading conditions, in conjunction with continuous and highly sensitive wear measurement methods and a detailed SEM analysis of the wear mechanisms, forms an intermediate step between engine testing and laboratory environment testing.

For a tribological experiment involving a steel shaft sliding in a self-lubricating bronze bearing, a semi-supervised machine learning method for the classification of the state of operation is proposed. During the translatory oscillating motion, the system may undergo different states of operation from normal to critical, showing self-recovering behaviour. A Random Forest classifier was trained on individual cycles from the lateral force data from four distinct experimental runs in order to distinguish between four states of operation. The labelling of the individual cycles proved to be crucial for a high prediction accuracy of the trained RF classifier. The proposed semi-supervised approach allows choosing within a range between automatically generated labels and full manual labelling by an expert user. The algorithm was at the current state used for ex post classification of the state of operation. Considering the results from the ex post analysis and providing a sufficiently sized training dataset, online classification of the state of operation of a system will be possible. This will allow taking active countermeasures to stabilise the system or to terminate the experiment before major damage occurs.

Increasing demands on gear components such as high-pressure and high speeds are aggravated by weight saving strategies eliminating an optional secondary lubrication system during negative g operations or windmilling, which result in loss of lubrication conditions (LOL) and scuffing. In order to understand gear design options able to withstand LOL at high velocities, systematic, fundamental studies on model test-rigs, e.g. twin-disc rigs, are required. For this purpose, a twin-disc rig was designed which is able to perform test at high entrainment velocities of up to 80 m/s and high lubricant injection temperatures. Systematic studies have been carried out in continuous lubrication and LOL condition and evaluated in terms of friction and time-of failure (TOF). A mixed EHL model complemented the experimental matrix for wider range of temperatures and additionally compared the influence of the grinding direction on the lubricant gap.Entrainment velocity showed to have the most prominent influence on friction in continuous mode, mostly for the increase from 8 m/s to 23 m/s, followed by minor changes upon further increase to 30 m/s. The influence of injection temperature was mostly prominent at high entrainment velocities. Contact pressure had the strongest influence on TOF. Comparisons with superfinished disc surfaces exhibited a high increase in TOF and significantly less scuffing damage fractures on the runway.

Soft polymers such as the investigated polyurethane, characterized by low Young’s moduli and prone to high shear deflection, are frequently applied in pneumatic cylinders. Their performance and lifetime without external lubrication are highly determined by the friction between seal and shaft and the wear rate. FEM simulation has established itself as a tool in seal design processes but requires input values for friction and wear depending on material, load, and velocity. This paper presents a tribological test configuration for long stroke, reciprocating movement, allowing the generation of data which meet the requirements of input parameters for FEM simulations without the geometrical influences of specific seal profiles. A numerical parameter study, performed with an FEM model, revealed the most eligible sample geometry as a flat, disc-shaped sample of the polymer glued on a stiff sample holder. At the same time, the study illustrates that the sensitivity of the contact pressure distribution to Poisson’s ratio and CoF can be minimized by the developed and verified setup. It ensures robust, reliable, and repeatable experimental results with uniform contact pressures and constant contact areas to be used in databases and FEM simulations of seals, enabling upscaling from generically shaped samples to complex seal profiles.

High sliding wear resistance is generally attributed to high hardness and high mechanical strength. Novel near net shape process technologies such as metal injection moulding (MIM) or lost foam casting (LF) lack forming processes that typically increase strength. Consequently, the materials exhibit large-grained microstructures with low defect densities. Commercial copper alloys (CuSn8, CuNi9Sn6, CuSn12Ni2) well known for good sliding properties were produced using MIM and LF and characterised in the current study. Their wear and friction behaviour was compared to conventionally produced variants in a lubricated, reciprocating sliding test against steel. The results showed an equal or superior wear resistance and lower friction levels for large-grained microstructures evolving in MIM and LF. SEM, FIB and EBSD studies revealed a tribolayer on the surface and a tribologically transformed layer (TTL), composed of a nano-crystalline zone or partially rotated grains, and selective hardening of grains. The extent of the TTL was different for alloys that were chemically identical but exhibited different initial microstructures. Innovative production routes investigated here showed no tribological drawbacks, but present the potential to increase lifetime, as nano-crystalline zones may render the sample more prone to wear. We present a hypothesis on the cause for these behaviours.