Lubrication of Phase Change of Paraffin Driven by Friction Heat and Its Tribological Properties on Texture Surface

YIN Haofeng; WANG Qianzhi; WANG Changshun; WU Xue

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.21.018

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Surface Technology ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (21) : 251-262. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.21.018

Friction, Wear and Lubrication

Lubrication of Phase Change of Paraffin Driven by Friction Heat and Its Tribological Properties on Texture Surface

YIN Haofeng^a, WANG Qianzhi^a,b,*, WANG Changshun^a, WU Xue^a

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Abstract

To transform the detrimental effects of frictional heat into tribologically advantageous conditions, the work aims to propose a friction-reducing surface design methodology based on the synergistic interaction between paraffin and surface textures. Diamond shaped microstructures of different dimensions were prepared on the surface of TC4 titanium alloy with micro-electrical discharge forming method. Paraffin was integrated into the texture through an ultrasonic degassing instrument for 20 minutes to form a composite surface. Friction and wear tests were conducted to evaluate the tribological properties of both texture and composite surfaces, as well as the effect of texture dimensions on the friction behavior of the composite surface. The following parameter settings were used in the experiment: load of 12 N, grinding speed of 0.2 m/s, and sliding distance of 700 m. To study the frictional properties of paraffin after phase transition, a heating lamp was used to preheat the sample to 32 ℃ before the friction test, and a handheld thermo-graphic camera was used to monitor the friction interface temperature in real time. The dynamic variations in temperature, friction coefficient, and wear amount of two surfaces during friction were compared, and the surface morphology after wear was characterized and analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, a numerical model of the composite surface was established with FLUENT software to reveal the friction-reduction mechanism from the perspective of fluid dynamic lubrication theory. The experimental results demonstrated that the paraffin embedded in the diamond shaped texture absorbed frictional heat, causing the friction interface temperature to decrease from 41.8 ℃ to 40.6 ℃. The paraffin melted by heat absorption formed a lubricating film on the composite surface, which exhibited lower friction coefficient and wear amount compared to the texture surface. Among them, the composite surface of diamond shaped texture with width of 200 μm, depth of 250 μm, and surface density of 10% presented an average friction coefficient of (0.251±0.06), which was 35.5% lower than that (0.389±0.05) of the corresponding texture surface. Its wear amount was (5.1±0.7) mg, which was 43.3% lower than that of the texture surface. Surface morphology analysis showed that the texture surface exhibited severe abrasive wear and adhesive wear, while the composite surface only showed moderate abrasive wear. The numerical simulation results revealed the fluid dynamic lubrication mechanism of the textures: paraffin generated a pressure of -216 Pa at the texture inlet due to diverging wedge-shaped gaps, and a pressure of 224 Pa at the outlet due to converging wedge-shaped gaps. Due to the outlet pressure gain being greater than the inlet loss, the overall oil film bearing capacity of the texture was improved, which was consistent with the wedge effect theory of fluid dynamic lubrication. Integrating experimental and simulation results, a synergistic lubrication mechanism for the textured/paraffin composite surfaces is established: the paraffin's solid-liquid phase transition not only absorbs frictional heat to reduce interface temperature, but also releases liquid lubricant to improve the friction conditions. Surface textures further optimize lubrication performance by increasing heat dissipation area and storing paraffin. The texture/paraffin composite surface developed in this work achieves a synergistic reduction in temperature, friction coefficient, and wear rate under dry friction conditions, providing an important reference for the design of new anti-friction lubrication surfaces. By selecting the appropriate texture width, depth, and surface density, the composite surface can achieve optimized wear resistance.

Key words

titanium alloy / surface texture / phase change materials / paraffin / composite surface / wear mechanism

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YIN Haofeng, WANG Qianzhi, WANG Changshun, WU Xue. Lubrication of Phase Change of Paraffin Driven by Friction Heat and Its Tribological Properties on Texture Surface[J]. Surface Technology. 2025, 54(21): 251-262 https://doi.org/10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.21.018

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