The work aims to solve the problem that Ti-alloys easily get serious wear under dry friction or boundary lubrication situations, making the interface lubrication film difficult to keep a good and stable lubrication effect. Under the inspiration from the automatic perspiration mechanism of the tiny structure of human body's sweat glands, a bionic sweat gland closed sine-shaped micro-flow channel for the self-lubrication design is put forward to well reach a perfect balance among the under-surface storage, surface supplement, under-surface supply and surface need of solid lubricants. The Ti-alloy test pieces which hold the closed sine-shaped tiny flow paths are manufactured via metallic 3D printing. A SnCuAg-Graphene (SG) composite lubricant is injected into the microchannels by means of a vacuum discharge plasma-aided infiltration method. Five groups of test samples have been prepared, that is Ti-S (without graphene) and Ti-SG-1, Ti-SG-2, Ti-SG-3 and Ti-SG-4, whose graphene mass fractions are 0, 0.50wt.%, 1.00wt.%, 1.50wt.%, and 2.00wt.% in order, to carry out the systematic research on the effect of graphene content on the obtained tribological behavior. Afterwards, the ball-on-disk friction experiment is conducted on a MFT-5000 friction testing machine, with a Si3N4 ball (diameter 6 mm, hardness 15.54 GPa) as the counterpart. The test is carried out at a relative humidity of 45%-50%, under normal loads of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 N and a sliding velocity of 0.25 m/s during 80 min. The friction coefficient has got continuous recording, and every load situation is conducted three times to get average numerical values. The morphology of the wear scar, the distribution of elements and the wear characteristics are analyzed by combining FESEM/EDS with a 3D profilometer. The results show that, compared with the unpermeated samples, the friction coefficient and wear rate of the permeated samples are well reduced, indicating that subsurface microchannels can effectively improve the tribological properties of Ti-alloys. Compared with the Ti-S sample containing only SnCuAg, the SnCuAg-Graphene lubrication system exhibits a lower friction coefficient and wear rate under the same load. By adjusting the composition of the composite lubricant, when the Graphene content is 1.50wt.%, the Ti-SG-3 has the best comprehensive tribological performance, with an average friction coefficient of approximately 0.27 and a wear rate of about 3.03×10‒4 mm3/(N·m) under 12 N load, and the wear scar is smoother (Sq=0.23 μm, Sa=0.18 μm), which indicates that a more continuous protection lubrication film has been formed. In conclusion, the closed sinusoidal microchannels act as an integrated "storage-transport" network which promotes the keeping of the lubricant under the surface, and helps the continuous sending of the lubricant to the contact area, thus reaching a good equilibrium between the under-surface provision and surface requirement of the lubricants and reducing the film shortage and making an interface condition stable in a long-time sliding. Meanwhile, SnCuAg suppresses the Graphene oxidation, and facilitates the plastic flow of soft SnCuAg. Graphene enhances the load-bearing capacity of SnCuAg, thereby improving the tribological bahavior of the lubrication film, boosting the friction reduction, wear resistance, and operational reliability of Ti-alloys under the severe service conditions.
Key words
biomimetic sweat gland /
closed sinusoidal microchannel /
SnCuAg-Graphene /
friction and wear /
self-repairing lubrication
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Funding
Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (262300420053); Science and Technology Research Project of the Department of Science and Technology of Henan Province (252102220126); Key Scientific Research Project of Higher Education Institutions of Henan Provincial Department of Education（25B430039）
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