Investigation of wear mechanism of forged steel piston skirt under boundary lubricated conditions

Purpose With the implementation of new emission standards, the thermal–mechanical coupling load of engine pistons becomes more important. In this case, forged steel material with higher fatigue limit and impact resistance has been applied gradually in piston manufacturing. However, new failure problems emerge, and the wear of skirt under boundary lubrication conditions is an essential problem which needs to be solved urgently. Design/methodology/approach In this research, the abrasion testing machine was used to simulate the wear behavior under different conditions of normal pressure, relative velocity and surface roughness. Besides, the wear morphology was observed by scanning electron microscope. Then, the wear model was established by using test results fitting method, offering a way to conduct qualitative analysis for the wear problem under the same conditions. Findings The results show that mainly the wear mechanism of the piston skirt under boundary lubricated conditions is adhesive wear and abrasive wear. In addition, the coefficient and wear rate will increase with the increase in the normal load and surface roughness and decrease with the increase in the relative speed. In the wear model, the wear loss is mainly influenced by the normal load, the relative sliding speed and the wear time. Originality/value The wear degree of piston skirt was qualitatively obtained in this investigation by factors such as pressure, velocity and so on, and the wear mechanism of forged steel piston skirt under boundary lubrication conditions was also determined. These could provide theoretical support for further optimization of cylinder motion and oil supply system, reduction of friction loss and power loss.