Numerical simulation and experimental investigation on friction and wear behaviour of micro-textured cemented carbide in dry sliding against TC4 titanium alloy balls

The model of ball-on-disk test was established and three kinds of textures with different geometric characteristics were designed on the surface of the cemented carbide disk. The optimal geometric characteristic of texture was obtained by finite element analysis. The hole-textures of different parameters were processed on the surface of the cemented carbide disk by laser machining. The effects of texture and lubricant on friction and wear behaviour were analysed by comparing four different cemented carbide disks through the ball-on-disk contrast tests. Ball-on-disk orthogonal tests were carried out to obtain the best geometric parameters of the hole-texture. The results of numerical simulation showed that the wear depth of the hole-texture disk was the smallest among all three different textured disks. The results of contrast tests showed that the texture filled with lubricant could effectively improve the friction and wear of cemented carbide disk in dry sliding against TC4 titanium alloy balls. It was found that the adhesion of the surface textured cemented carbide disk was the most serious and the adhesion of the surface textured cemented carbide disk with lubricant filled into the textures was the lowest among four tested samples, which indicated that the texture could significantly increase the adhesion of titanium alloy to the surface of cemented carbide disk, while the solid lubricant could effectively reduce it. Meanwhile, the main effect mechanisms of textures were also discussed. In addition, the best geometric parameters of the texture were determined to be 100 μm in diameter, 80 μm in depth and 600 μm in spacing through orthogonal tests. It was also found that the spacing had the greatest effect on the friction coefficient and the wear volume, and the friction coefficient and the wear volume decreased with the increasing of the spacing.