Numerical study on the lubrication performance of oil films in textured piston/cylinder pairs

The piston/cylinder pair is one of the most important friction pairs in the axial piston pump; reducing the friction of it can improve the axial piston pump efficiency. In this paper, the Reynolds equation coupled with the Half–Sommerfeld boundary condition is applied to predict the dynamics of the textured piston/cylinder pairs, and the characteristic function is used to predict the optimal geometry parameters. The analysis results show that the combination of the shearing coefficient and the characteristic function can predict the cavitation region and the critical inclination angle. The results of this paper provide theoretical guidance for the surface texture design on piston/cylinder pairs.