The modification of surface geometries to reduce friction is an omnipresent topic of research. In nature, different low-friction surfaces, such as fish skins, exist. To transfer this knowledge to technical applications, for example, to journal or plain bearings, many numerical and experimental studies of textured surfaces have been performed. In this work, the influence of the geometric parameters (texture length $l$, width $b$, angle $\alpha$ and start position $x_{start})$ of a wedge-shaped texture on three different convergent oil film gaps was analyzed in full-film lubrication and compared with untextured oil film gaps. With the aid of a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model, a comprehensive variation study was conducted, and the best-performing wedge-shaped texture was determined. The results show that an open texture at the inlet provides the largest improvement. Furthermore, it can be observed that the optimal relative texture width and absolute inlet height for the three investigated oil film gaps are similar. In contrast to the volume flow of the untextured geometry, the volume flow of the textured one is significantly higher, especially that perpendicular to the movement direction.

This study analyzes the influence of nine distinct texture geometries on a convergent oil film gap using a simulation model. The geometrical dimensions of the textures are characterized by the texture area density, $S_{tex.,A}$ and the ratio of the textured-to-untextured area ($A_{tex.}/A_0)$. The results show that different texture geometries optimize the tribological performance depending on the value of $S_{tex.,A}$. Rectangular textures with variable widths (85% of the texture length $a_{tex.}$) significantly enhance lifting and the drag force across a broad range of $S_{tex.,A}$. Furthermore, rectangular textures with a constant width (85% of the global width $b_0$) show the best improvement within this study. The investigation also reveals that a small texture pitch angle, ${\alpha }_{tex}$, further enhances tribological performance.