Patterns-Based Coating of Piston Skirt for Added Benefits during Hydrodynamic Lubrication in Internal Combustion Engines

Friction has been a significant research concern for decades. Most of the energy input into an internal combustion (IC) engine is wasted because it is used to overcome friction. Scientific developments have been made to reduce friction, including surface coatings and surface textures, which have emerged as potential solutions to reducing friction throughout the lubricating regimes. This study combines surface texturing with the coating approach to investigate the frictional response. Realistic tribo-dynamics (secondary motion of the piston skirt) are considered during actual engine-like conditions to explore the effects of pattern-based coating on friction in hydrodynamic lubrication. Results show a remarkable reduction in friction and encourage the pattern-based development of surface coatings to extend the benefit across lubricating regimes. Consequently, the surface coated with optimized patterns had 7.98 ± 0.34 % reduced energy loss per engine cycle as compared with the surface coated without a pattern.