Reduction of friction and wear by grooves applied on the nanoscale polished surface in boundary lubrication conditions

The evolution of a friction surface geometry with initially directed microscale grooves on a nanoscale polished surface in ring-on-block sliding contact is studied experimentally. Reduced wear and friction is observed when the orientation of grooves coincides with the direction of sliding. A new compressive-vacuum hypothesis of friction force nature under a condition of boundary lubrication is proposed, which successfully explains the observed phenomena. Grooves supply lubricant into the contact zone and facilitate its devacuumization, which lead to substantial reduction of surface wear. The obtained results enable developing optimized roughness profiles of friction surfaces to create high-performance durable friction units.