Physical aspects of wear of the piston-ring-cylinder set of combustion engines

The research presented in this paper has shown that the physical aspects of interfacial phenomena, described by the total value of surface free energy and the values of its components, make it possible to select more suitable materials for sliding pairs. The total value of surface free energy depends on the molecular structure and the bonds characteristic of a given material, and determines its hardness. In order to reduce friction losses in a sliding pair that is being designed, it is proposed to match such materials for the pair in such a way that the surface of one of them has a high sum of surface free energy components originating from van der Waals interactions, while the other material's surface has a possibly low value of the sum. Furthermore, proper values of the components of surface free energy ensure proper wettability with lubricating oil. In order to minimize friction in a sliding contact, the element with the larger surface area (e.g. a cylinder sleeve) should have larger dispersion and van der Waals forces compared with those of the oil, while the element with the smaller area (e.g. a piston ring) has to have smaller (as low as possible) dispersion and van der Waals forces compared with those of the lubricating oil. Thus a basis for reducing friction losses, particularly during mixed friction and boundary friction, has been created. Pursuing the practical goal of this research, a new cylinder liner sliding pair of a piston-ring-cylinder (PRC) set (in which the ring has a titanium nitride (TiN) coating and the cylinder liner has a surface layer with varying properties, applied by vacuum nitriding) of a piston packing ring-combustion engine was designed and made. The sliding pair can be used in self-ignition combustion engines and in spark-ignition engines. The sliding pair is the result of the research carried out as part of this paper, including tests in a tribotester and three-stage testing embracing numerical simulations, preliminary tests on the real object, and tests proper on the real object.