Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875

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Applied Surface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc

Study on effect of dimples on friction of parallel surfaces under different sliding

conditions
Fanming Meng a,b,*, Rui zhou a, Tiffany Davis a, Jian Cao a, Q.Jane Wang a, Diann Hua c, Jordan Liu c
a
Center for Surface Engineering and Tribology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
b
The State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, People’s Republic of China
c
Advanced Materials Technology Division, Product Development Center of Excellence, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL 61656-1875, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The influence of rectangle dimples with flat bottom on the friction of parallel surfaces at different sliding
Received 14 August 2009 conditions is investigated based on lubrication equations. The elastic deformation of rough surfaces is
Accepted 15 November 2009 evaluated using continuous convolution fast Fourier transform (CC-FFT). The friction coefficients for
Available online 23 December 2009
dimpled and non-dimpled parallel surfaces by simulation are compared with experimental results.
Results show that this kind of dimples can reduce the friction coefficient for cases with the smaller ratio
Keywords: of film thickness to roughness (h/Rq), small roughness or large applied load. The friction force for the
Friction coefficient
parallel surfaces can decrease due to the dimple effect over the range of the larger sliding speed, larger
Friction force
load or smoother surfaces.
Dimple
Parallel surfaces ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Lubrication
CC-FFT

1. Introduction some difficulties encountered in generalizing dimple conclusions

Reduction in friction and wear loss has been interests for
tribologists and lubrication engineers. Recently, surface texturing
on the micro-scale level has been introduced to improve
lubrication and lower friction of tribological pairs. The associated
researches were carried out mainly by use of experiments [1–9],
where the presented results come mainly from pin-on-disc
experiments. One of these researches, for example, examined
friction between a flattened steel ball and laser textured steel disk,
through which the positive effects of dimples on the disk were
found to be more apparent in situations with higher sliding speeds
[1]. In another work, roughness on different kinds of dimpled
surfaces on friction was investigated, which showed that the
friction coefficient varied considerably with surface textures [9].
These researches aids to insight into the mechanism of lowering
friction with dimples. Experiments about dimple effects on
friction, however, are usually time-consuming and results from
the experiments are subjected to experiment conditions, thereby
* Corresponding author at: Center for Surface Engineering and Tribology,
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Tel.: +86 23 6511482.
E-mail address: fmmeng@xjtu.edu.cn (F. Meng).
from the experiments.
With the rapid development of computing ability of computers, a
virtual texturing procedure was recently developed where desired
surface features were designed and then the effect of dimples on
mating surfaces on friction was numerically simulated in a
conformal-contact situation [10,11]. The associated results showed
that the lower friction coefficient can yield because of the dimple
effect resulted from a greater separation between the mating
surfaces. Another recent numerical simulation examined effects of a
variety of dimple bottom shapes on friction in a conformal-contact
condition [12]. It was found that dimples with flat bottoms or
wedge-shaped bottoms created larger film thicknesses than other
shapes, thereby reducing friction and wear to a greater degree. The
improvement of the tribological performances with dimples is
attributed mainly to the fact that dimples on textured surfaces may
play a role as lubricant reservoirs, increasing the thickness of the
lubricant film between the mating surfaces, thereby decreasing
friction. In addition, the dimples also serve as pockets for wear
particles embedment, preventing debris from further damaging the
substrate surface via plowing. The commendable work, along with
previously mentioned researches, help greatly to the development
of surface texturing technologies.
Despite the above researches, so far very little work has
involved the study of dimple influence on the friction of parallel

0169-4332/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2009.11.041
2864 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
Ce coefficient of composite elastic deformation
E composite elastic modulus
f friction coefficient
F applied force on the top end of the cylinder
Ff total friction force
Fh friction force due to hydrodynamic action
Fa friction force due to contacting asperity
h mean film thickness
hT local film thickness
P pressure
Pin Pout inlet and outlet pressure of fluid, respectively
Rq composite
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi roughness standard deviation, Rq ¼
R2q1 þ R2q2
Rq1, Rq2 roughness standard deviations of the lower and
upper surfaces
t sliding time
U relative sliding speed between strip and cylinder
along the x direction
V composite elastic deformation
W total load-carrying capacity
Wh load-carrying capacity due to hydrodynamic action
Wa load-carrying capacity due to contacting asperity
x, y longitudinal and transverse coordinates, respec-
tively
z (p,q) roughness height
Greek letters
g surface orientation, i.e., Peklenik number
d1, d2 roughness amplitudes of the upper and lower
surfaces
h lubricant viscosity
lx, ly autocorrelation lengths of the rough surface in the
x and y directions
m friction coefficient for contacting asperities
V computation domain
surfaces. Recently, lubricated parallel surfaces are being more used
in engineering practices (in the design of thrust bearings, for
example), which arouses researchers’ concern about the dimple
function in changing the friction of parallel surfaces. How the
dimples on the parallel surfaces, however, change the friction of
parallel surfaces has been not investigated in all above literature,
along with other open literature available. To reveal the influence
mechanism, dimple effects on the friction of textured parallel
surfaces will be investigated in the present study. Since dimples
with flat bottoms or wedge-shaped bottoms can reduce friction to
greater degree than those with other shapers [12], only effects of
rectangle dimples with flat bottom on friction will be analyzed in
the present study. Experiment analysis of the dimple effect on the
friction of laser dimpled parallel surfaces will be firstly presented.
And then the dimple effects on the friction of parallel surfaces will
be simulated based on Reynolds lubrication equation and
associated equations. In doing so, the two typical kinds of surfaces,
i.e., transverse and longitudinal surfaces were employed to analyze
the dimple effect and further associated conclusions will be drawn.
2. Experiments
The friction coefficient is first obtained through a parallel
surface friction testing.
A schematic of the experimental setup are shown in Fig. 1,
where a thin strip of sheet metal is pulled across the flat bottom
end of a steel cylinder with a support shaft underneath. A normal
force was applied on the top end of the cylinder, pressing the
cylinder bottom surface and strip together. A small amount of mill
oil lubricant was applied to each strip before testing. The sliding
speed of the strip was actuated by a computer controlled rack with
adjustable speed, and the driving force to pull the strip was
monitored by a digital force gauge. A 2 mm wide strip was cut from
1 mm thick DP600 sheet steel with 400 mm lengths. The strips
were pulled across the dimpled or non-dimpled surfaces in a flat-
on-flat contact condition. Since dimples with flat bottoms or
wedge-shaped bottoms can reduce friction to greater degree than
those with other shapers [12], only rectangle dimples with flat
bottom were prepared to be convenient for dimple processing. The
flat ends of D2 steel cylinders of diameter 18.75 mm were
machined and ground in preparation for testing. Before every
experiment, the cylinder bottom and strip were cleaned. After
every experiment, the cylinder and strip were respectively
replaced with new cylinder and strip with the same geometry
sizes, same material properties, and same surface properties. A
picture of the actual setup is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 gives created
dimples, i.e., rectangular bar depressions with flat bottoms and
with a width of 100 mm, a length of 400 mm, a depth of 25 mm, and
the vertical and horizontal spaces are 460 mm and 770 mm
between adjacent dimples. The coverage density of approximately
5% by the laser texturing, will be also used for the following
simulation.
Fig. 4 gives the measured friction coefficient as a function of the
sliding speed on different normal forces, where the final stabilized
value was taken to be the average of the friction coefficients in that
particular test. Owing to the fact the cylinder is firmly pressed
against the strip, the bottom of the cylinder or the strip is probably
in mixed lubrication state. As shown in Fig. 4, the lower friction
coefficients appear for dimpled surfaces at various sliding speeds,
compared with those for non-dimpled surfaces. Comparison
between Fig. 4(a)–(c) show that the absolute value of the friction
coefficient at the same sliding speed for the same dimpled or non-
dimpled surface is different under the different applied loads,
which is due to the fact that the partition between full-film
lubrication and contact asperities changes with the various load.
Fig. 5 gives the friction coefficient at different sliding speeds
against the normal force. As shown in Fig. 5, the friction coefficient
for dimpled surfaces decreases compared to that of non-dimpled
surfaces when the normal force varies from 60 N to 200 N. This is
attributed mainly to the fact that dimples can restore lubricant,
thereby decreasing friction, as stated previously. In addition, the
pockets formed by the dimples can contain wear particles, and thus
the friction coefficient decreases.
Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental setup for dimple friction test, where normal
force is applied on the top of a steel cylinder, and the strip is pulled at a constant
speed and pulling force is recorded.
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
Fig. 2. Actual testing setup. A normal force and sliding speed are controlled via
adjustable counterweight and computer controller, respectively. A digital force
gauge is used to monitor the friction force. The test sample is loaded into the upper
fixture and secured with a set screw. 1- Counterweight; 2- Speed controller; 3-
Force gauge; 4- Steel cylinder sample; 5- Steel strip; 6-Support shaft.
In the above section, the relationship between the friction
coefficient and sliding speed was studied through the experiment.
It is still unclear, however, whether the conclusion drawn from the
experiment can be generalized in engineering applications. To
overcome the occasionality of experiment results, the dimple
influence on the friction of parallel surfaces will be numerically
studied in the following sections.
3. Numerical model and solution
3.1. Generation of rough surface
Since the cylinder bottom is rough and mating between the
cylinder and steel strip is flat-to-flat, effects of the dimples on
parallel surfaces with given surface orientation on friction will be
investigated. To this end, rough surfaces are generated to simulate
the cylinder bottom with a computer code where the specified
standard deviation, autocorrelation function (ACF) and distribu-
tion function are given. The code is programmed by authors based
on the PC line [13].
Fig. 3. Laser textured sample surface; the cylinder diameter is 18.75 mm. Laser textured dimples with a width of 100 mm, length of 400 mm, and depth of 25 mm, and the
vertical and horizontal spaces are 460 mm and 770 mm between adjacent dimples.
2865
Since many engineering surfaces have Gaussian or near
Gaussian height distribution, Gaussian surfaces with prescribed
ACF are generated by the authors’ code. For the Gaussian surfaces
to be generated, x and y are assumed to be the longitudinal and
transverse directions of the flow of lubricant between the mating
surfaces, respectively. In doing so, three main parameters
presenting surface characteristics are needed: the composite
standard deviation of the surface s, and autocorrelation lengths
lx and ly, defined separately as the autocorrelation lengths in the x
and y directions of the rough surface to be generated. Thus, the
employed ACF can be written as
8
< s 2 ð1  p Þ þ ð1  q Þ; ð p  lx ; q  ly Þ
Rðlx ; ly Þ ¼ lx ly (1)
:
0; ð p > lx ; q > ly Þ
It is noted that when lx = ly, the generated surface is isotropic.
If lx 6¼ ly, the generated surface is anisotropic. In order to present
the characteristic of the surfaces, an Perlenik number, should be
employed
ðl0:5x DxÞ
g¼ (2)
ðl0:5y DyÞ
where l0.5x and l0.5y are the half correlation lengths in x and y
directions, respectively, defined as the lengths at which the
autocorrelation function decays to 50% of their own value at the
origin. A Gaussian surface with Peklenik number of one is isotropic,
while a surface having Peklenik numbers greater than one or less
than one contains asperities longer in the x or y direction,
respectively. Here, Dx and Dy are the spaces between adjacent
grids in x and y directions, respectively.
Suppose the h(i, j) denotes random number with mean equal to
zero and variation equal to unity, the roughness heights can
expressed as
Xlx l¼
X ly
s k¼
di j ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi hði þ k; j þ lÞ; ði ¼ 1; 2;    N; j ¼ 1; 2;    MÞ
lx ly k¼1 l¼1
(3)
where N and M are the numbers of grids in the x and y directions,
respectively. All generated surfaces are represented with
512  512 gridpoints in the present study. Such gridpoints are
chosed out for quick solving the elastic deformation using
continuous convolution Fast Fourier transform (CC-FFT) in the
2866 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
Fig. 4. The friction coefficient by experiment with and without dimples at various sliding velocity at different normal forces F applied on the top of cylinder: (a) F = 60 N; (b)
F = 120 N; (c) F = 200 N.
following elastic deformation. In fact, FFT technique has been used
in solving the elastic deformation of rough surfaces, which can
shorten the computation time of deformation. Thus, using Eqs. (1)–
(3) can yield Gaussian surfaces with various Perlenik number g.
Fig. 6 gives two generated surfaces respectively with g = 1/100, and
g = 100, which are separately comparable approximately to a
transverse and longitudinal surfaces. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that
the orientations of the generated surfaces can be distinguished,
which implies that the present code generating rough surfaces is
satisfactory.
3.2. Basic equations
Based on the above randomly generated Gaussian surfaces,
dimple effects on the friction of parallel surfaces can be simulated.
In doing so, the cylinder bottom is assumed to be with the same
Fig. 5. The friction coefficient against applied load at various sliding velocity.
surface characterization, respectively, as those of the generated
Gaussian surfaces. Meanwhile, the cylinder is assumed to be
stationary, while the strip slides with the sliding speed of U. The
nominal film thicknesses between the cylinder bottom and strip is
denoted by h. If the roughness amplitude of the cylinder bottom
and strip are represented by, respectively, the random variables d2
and d1, which are separately distributed with standard deviations
Rq2 and Rq1 from their mean levels, the local film thickness hT can
be expressed as
hT ¼ h þ d1 þ d2 þ V (4)
where V is the composite elastic deformation of the cylinder
bottom and strip, whose expression will be further given.
With the above defined local film thickness hT, the pressure to
be used for friction analyses can be solved through a Reynolds
equation. On the classical lubrication theory that the lubricant is
continuous, homogeneous and Newtonian fluid under isothermal
conditions, the two-dimensional Reynolds lubrication equation,
neglecting the dependency of lubricant density on the pressure and
the dependency of lubricant viscosity on the temperature, can be
described in the following form
   
@ h3T @P @ h3T @P U @hT @hT
þ ¼ þ (5)
@x 12m @x @y 12m @y 2 @x @t
where P is the pressure, m the lubricant viscosity, t the sliding time,
and U the sliding speed of the strip.
According to Eq. (5), the pressure can be solved, which refers to
the film pressure resulted from hydrodynamic effect of lubricant or
the contact pressure supplied by contacting asperities on the
mating surfaces. The dealing with contact pressure is important. In
actual process of solving Eq. (5), when hT become less than a very
small value e, the contact between asperities is assumed to occur,
thus lubricant flow due to the hydrodynamic pressure gradient
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875 2867

where V denotes the solution domain, Ce is the coefficient of

composite elastic deformation, which is related to E and v, defined
separately as the composite Young’s modulus and Poisson ratio of
mating surfaces. P(z, j) is the hydrodynamic pressure, and Pa(z, j) is
the contact pressure. The point (z, j) is the deterministic one in
solving domain, while the point (x, y) is one whose elastic
deformation will be solved. To quickly solve Eq. (8), the
convolution Fast Fourier transform (CC-FFT) is used in the present
study.
Further, the total load-carrying capacity supplied by hydrody-
namic action of oil film and contacting asperities can be evaluated
in the following form
ZZ
W¼ ðP þ P a Þdxdy (9)
V

In the present study, the load-carry capacity caused by

hydrodynamic action of oil film, i.e., Wh, is computed under the
conditions of film thickness larger than 0.5 nm, while the load-
carrying capacity by contacting asperities, i.e., Wa, is evaluated in
the term of thickness less than or equal to 0.5 nm.
Then, summing the above two kinds of load-carrying capacities
yield the total load-carrying capacity, expressed as

W ¼ Wh þ Wa (10)

Similarly, the total friction can be computed, which consists of

the friction forces due, respectively, to viscous shear and contact
Fig. 6. Random roughness surfaces with various orientation parameters: (a) g = 1/ between asperities.
100; (b) g = 100. For the friction force due to viscous shear, its form is written as
ZZ  
mU hT @P
Fh ¼ þ dxdy (11)
being neglected. The e value is usually taken as the order of V hT 2 @x
magnitude of diameter of one lubricant molecule [14,15], which is
Since the contact pressure, as stated previously, can be
assumed to be 0.5 nm taken in present study, since our numerical
evaluated according to Eq. (6), the friction force due to contacting
results show the hT less than 0.5 nm negligibly affects the resulting
asperities can be further computed in the term of the following
friction coefficient and friction force. Thus, Eq. (5) can be reduced
expression
as
F a ¼ mW a (12)
@h @h
þ ¼0 (6)
@x @t where the friction coefficient between asperities m is assumed to
be 0.3 in the present study, since the authors simulation shows that
According to Eq. (6), the contact pressure can be solved. It is only under the condition of the m value of 0.3 or so, the computed
noteworthy that Eq. (6) is actually a special case of Eq. (5), which is friction coefficient are basically with that measured in the above
obtained by removing Poiseuille flow terms from the left hand of experiment.
Eq. (5). Thus, a full numerical solution over the entire computation Thus, by summing Eqs. (11) and (12), the final total friction
domain including full-film, and contact zones can be obtained by force can be obtained according to the following form
solving Eq. (5) or Eq. (6), and associated equations without
requiring any information about the contact borders. Moreover, Ff ¼ Fh þ Fa (13)
the above treatment can be easily programmed.
If the applied force on the top end of the cylinder is denoted by
To solve Eq. (5) or Eq. (6) for the pressure over the computation
F, which is balanced by the load-carrying load W defined in Eq. (10),
domain, the pressure boundary conditions is required, whose are
the friction coefficient can be evaluated using the friction force
given in the following forms
defined in Eq. (13), given below
8
>
> P ¼ P in at x ¼ 0 f ¼ F f =F (14)
>
<
P ¼ P out at x ¼ lx
(7) Thus, according to Eqs. (1)–(14), the dimple influence on the
>
> @P
>
: ¼ 0 at y ¼ 0; y ¼ ly friction of parallel surfaces can be studied in the following section.
@y
3.3. Solution scheme
where lx and ly are separately the length and width in the
computation domain, equal to 18.75 mm and 2 mm, as stated in
In the numerical simulation for the dimple effect on friction,
the above experiment.
random surfaces with Gaussian probability density function and
Once the pressure is determined according to Eqs. (4)–(7), the
the linear autocorrelation function (see Eqs. (1)–(3)) are first
composite elastic deformation of the cylinder and strip can be
generated by authors’ program based on the PC’s line. The strip
evaluated from the Boussinesq elastic theory
surface is assumed to be smooth, while the cylinder bottom surface
ZZ is assumed with the characteristics of generated surfaces. The
Pð& ; jÞ þ Pa ð& ; jÞ
Vðx; yÞ ¼ Ce  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi d& dj (8) boundary condition given in Eq. (7) is applied and boundary
2
V ðx  & Þ2 þ ðy  jÞ pressures are taken to be zero when determining the pressure.
2868 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875

Fig. 7. Comparisons of the friction coefficients between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various sliding speed when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.289 mm.
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
Same grid system as that used in generating a random rough
surface in previous section is employed to solve the governing
Eq. (5).
The coordinate original point is located at the beginning of
cylinder bottom, i.e., inlet of lubricant. Meanwhile, to quickly solve
Eq. (5) for the pressure, time-consuming calculation of pressure
variation with time is circumvented by the scheme that the
deviation of film thickness with respect to time on the right hand of
Eq. (5) is transformed as the deviation of film thickness with
respect to the space interval between two closely neighboring grid
points [13]. The details of transmission will not be repeated here.
Thus, the discredited equation of Eq. (5) in difference form can be
expressed as
Ei; j P i; j þ Ai; j Pi1; j þ Bi; j Piþ1; j þ C i; j Pi; j1 þ Di; j P i; jþ1  F i; j P i; j ¼ 0
ði ¼ 1; 2; . . . N; j ¼ 1; 2; . . . MÞ
where Ai,j–Fi,j are coefficients whose expressions are omitted here
for simplicity.
Fig. 8. Comparisons of the friction coefficients between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various sliding speed when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.0289 mm.
2869
Solving Eq. (15) for row by row solution is done with the under
relaxation method. Meanwhile, a backward difference method of
one order is used to achieve stable solutions. The pressure iteration
precision is taken to be 0.0001. After each solution is obtained, the
relaxation coefficient a is used to update the values of pressure P in
that row in the following form
P ¼ aP new þ ð1  aÞP old (16)
where Pold and Pnew are the pressure solutions before and after
every iteration, respectively.
When the applied load F is balanced by the load-carrying
capacity W, the computation terminates. During the process, CC-
FFT technology is used to evaluate the elastic deformation
expressed in Eq. (8). After successful solutions are obtained, the
(15) final values of load-carrying capacity and friction for each h/Rq and
g are obtained in the present study by averaging the solutions from
20 different, but statistically identical rough surfaces, since
computation results in the present study show that when the
2870 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
number of the surfaces goes beyond 15, its effect on the resulting
solution is negligible.
4. Numerical results and discussion
The friction coefficients against the strip sliding speed and
applied load are computed in this section at various ratio of film
thickness to roughness, h/Rq. As input parameters, the geometry
sizes of the dimples, strip and cylinder used in the above
experiment are employed again. In the simulation, the composite
Poisson ratio of the strip and cylinder is 0.3, their composite
Young’s modulus is 200 GPa, and usual idea elastic–plastic model
is employed and yield stress is 0.2 GPa. Meanwhile, the randomly
generated surfaces with Peklenik number g = 1/100 and 100,
separately comparable approximately to transverse and longitu-
dinal surfaces, are superimposed to the bottom surfaces of the
cylinder for the computation. Moreover, the strip is assumed to be
smooth. The number of the gridpoints in the solution domain is the
same as that used in generating rough surfaces, i.e., 512  512. In
solving Eq. (5), the pressure around the bottom end of the cylinder
is set as zero, and Reynolds boundary conditions are employed; the
h/Rq value is taken to be a very small value (0.5 nm in the present
Fig. 9. Comparisons of the friction coefficients between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various load (N) when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.289 mm.
study), if the contact between asperities occurs. The lubricant
viscosity m is 0.035 N s/m2. The composite roughness standard
deviation Rq is taken to be 0.289 mm, the same as that measured in
the above experiment.
4.1. Friction coefficient of dimpled surfaces
Fig. 7 shows that comparisons of the friction coefficients (f),
defined in Eq. (14), against the relative sliding speed between
dimpled and non-dimpled surfaces, where the H = h/Rq value
varies. As shown from Fig. 7, in the case of g = 1/100 shown in the
left column of Fig. 7 or g = 100 case shown in the right column of
Fig. 7, reduced friction coefficient for the dimpled surfaces against
the sliding speed can be both observed in the range of the smaller
h/Rq, compared with results from non-dimpled surfaces. This trend
is similar to the variation of the friction coefficient with various
strip sliding speed in the above experiment, as shown in Fig. 4,
where h/Rq value is small due to the fact that very thin lubricant
film appears between the cylinder bottom and strip, since they are
tightly pressed together by the normal force applied on the top end
of the cylinder. It should be pointed out that only the variation
trend of the friction coefficient between Fig. 7 and Fig. 4 is
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
compared, instead of their absolute amplitude. This is due to
mainly the fact that the exact match of the conditions in the
simulation and in the experiment is very difficult. In the case of
friction coefficient against the sliding speed, its variation trend of
the dimpled surface is similar to that of the non-dimpled surface,
as shown in Figs. 4 and 7. Since the dimples can form oil pockets on
the surfaces, as stated previously, and the number of contacting
asperities will decreases, and thus a reduction in the friction
coefficient for the dimpled surface, compared with results from
non-dimpled surface, is understandable. But for friction measure-
ment under the larger h/Rq condition, the associated experiment
has not been done due to the fact that it is difficult to keep thick
lubricant oil distributing between the cylinder bottom and strip
because of the serious flank leakage of lubricant, when the strip
slides. Therefore, the friction computation for the larger h/Rq value
is conducted only in the simulation form. In the case of g = 100 in
the right column of Fig. 7, the friction coefficient for the dimpled
transverse surface still decreases with varied h/Rq value, compared
with results from non-dimpled transverse surface. The phenomena
can also be found in a friction coefficient experiment from
literature [16]. But the conclusion for g = 1/100 surface does not
Fig. 10. Comparisons of the friction coefficients between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various load (N) when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.0289 mm.
2871
always hold for the varied h/Rq value. For example, in Fig. 7(e) with
h/Rq = 1.1, the friction coefficient for the dimpled surface decreases
only over the range of U > 0.6 m/min, while it will increases when
U  0.6 m/min. In Fig. 7(g) with h/Rq = 1.3, increased friction
coefficient for the dimpled surfaces occurs over the whole range of
the sliding speed. In Fig. 7(i) with h/Rq = 1.7, reduced friction
coefficient for the dimpled surfaces can be again found over the
whole range of the sliding speed. But the friction coefficient in
Fig. 7(i) is stable with sliding speed. This results from insignificant
variation of hydrodynamic effect of oil film with sliding speed in
this case. The unusual phenomena of dimple effect in Fig. 7(e) and
(g) can also be found in literature [3] where dimple effects on the
journal bearing friction was studied.
Further, the cause giving rise to the unusual dimple effect on
friction coefficient in Fig. 7(e) and (g) is explored. Fig. 8 shows
comparisons of the friction coefficient between dimple and non-
dimpled transverse or longitudinal surfaces against the sliding
speed at various h/Rq, where the composite roughness standard
deviation Rq is taken to be one of tenth of roughness standard
deviation measured in the above experiment, i.e., Rq = 0.0289 mm.
This small Rq value means that surfaces with the same Rq value are
2872 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875

smoother so that their roughness influence on friction is negligibly
small. From Fig. 8(a)–(f), reduced friction coefficients can be
observed whether for g = 1/100, or g = 100 surfaces at the same h/
Rq values, which are similar to variations of friction coefficients in
the experiment shown in Fig. 4. For other h/Rq values, the
computation shows that reduced friction coefficient of dimpled
surfaces can also occur. Comparisons of Fig. 7 with Fig. 8 show that
when Rq value decreases, the friction coefficient also decreases
under the condition of the same g and the same h/Rq values. This is
due to the fact that the lubricant flow carried by the valley of

Fig. 11. Comparisons of the friction forces between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various sliding speed (m/min) when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.289 mm.
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875 2873

asperities sharply decreases with reduced Rq value, and hydrody-
namic effect of the lubricant always is dominant, thereby reduced
friction for dimpled surfaces occurring.
According to the above analyses, a conclusion can be drawn that
the dimple effect on the friction coefficient is subjected to the
combined influence of the relative sliding speed between mating
surfaces, and the ratio of film thickness to roughness, roughness
standard deviation, and surface orientation. In addition, for the
small ratio of film thickness to roughness, or small roughness
standard deviation, the dimple can reduce friction coefficient of

Fig. 12. Comparisons of the friction forces between transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples at various sliding speed (m/min) when roughness deviation
Rq = 0.0289 mm.
2874 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
Fig. 13. The number of contacting points for transverse or longitudinal surfaces with and without dimples (a) for surface with g = 1/100; (b) for surface with g = 100.
mating surfaces. Therefore, the proper choice of these variables is
important in changing friction coefficient with dimple designs.
Besides the comparison of the friction coefficient between
dimpled and non-dimpled surfaces, the comparison is also
conducted in this section in the term of applied load, since a
given load is often applied on one of parallel surfaces. Figs. 9 and 10
separately present variations of the friction coefficient f for
dimpled and non-dimpled surfaces at various sliding speeds
against the applied load. The composite roughness standard
deviation Rq equals 0.289 mm in Fig. 9 while it is 0.0289 mm in
Fig. 10. The left columns of the two figures separately depict the
friction coefficients at g = 1/100, while the friction coefficients at
g = 100 are presented in the right columns of the two figures. It can
be found from Figs. 9 and 10 that the friction coefficient of dimpled
surfaces against the applied load is similar in trend to that of non-
dimpled surfaces when the same surface orientation and sliding
speed are used.
For the case of g = 100, the friction coefficient for dimpled
surfaces decreases, compared with that of non-dimpled surfaces,
over the whole range of load. This is similar to variations of the
measured friction coefficient due to dimple effect in Fig. 5, where
the cylinder bottom surface is approximately longitudinal
orientation, although the variation trend of friction coefficient
with the applied load in Fig. 9 (Fig. 10) seems different from that in
Fig. 5 because of the difficult exact match of the conditions in the
simulation and in the experiment.
For the g = 1/100 case, the reduced friction coefficients for
dimpled surfaces, similar to that in Fig. 5, occur only at the larger
load level. But little change in the friction coefficient between
dimpled and non-dimpled surfaces with g = 1/100 appears on the
smaller load level.
The trend difference of friction coefficient between the g = 1/
100 and g = 100 cases on the smaller load level may be due to the
fact that the lubricant flow is smoother on the longitudinal surface
than on the transverse surface, thereby the friction coefficient
decreasing for the dimpled longitudinal surfaces. The above
phenomena of friction coefficient implies that for lowering friction
coefficient, dimpled surfaces with longitudinal orientation seem
better than dimpled transverse surfaces.
4.2. Friction force of dimpled surfaces
Since friction force plays an important role in tribological
analyses, dimple influence on friction force for parallel surfaces is
also studied in the present study. Fig. 11 gives the friction force for
dimpled and non-dimpled surfaces at various h/Rq as a function of
the sliding speed, where the Rq value equals 0.289 mm, as the same
to that used in the above experiment. As shown in Fig. 11, although
the friction forces of dimpled surface against the sliding speed are
similar in trend to those of non-dimpled surfaces, the reduced
friction force for dimpled surface can be found, compared with
those of the non-dimpled surface. Since the dimples serve as oil
pockets on the surfaces, a reduce in the friction force is
understandable. When the load becomes larger, the positive effect
of oil pocket on the dimples becomes stronger, so the more
significantly reduced friction force occurs for dimpled surfaces.
Meanwhile, the amplitude of decreased friction force at the same
sliding speed varies with h/Rq values. In addition, the sensitivity of
reduced friction force to the g, can be observed in Fig. 11. This is
mainly due to the difference in the surface characteristics.
Fig. 12 further gives variations of the friction force at different
sliding speeds when the h/Rq varies from 0.3 up to 1.3, where the
composite roughness standard deviation Rq of 0.0289 mm is used
for minimizing influence of roughness in analyzing dimple
influence on friction. As shown in Fig. 12, the friction force of
dimpled surface against the sliding speed is similar in trend to that
of non-dimpled surfaces. However, reduced friction forces can be
found by comparison of friction force between the dimpled and
non-dimpled surfaces. The variation trend of friction force in
Fig. 12 with Rq = 0.0289 mm is similar to those with Rq = 0.289 mm
in Fig. 11.
According to the decrease in friction force shown in Figs. 11 and
12, and the variation of friction coefficient shown in Figs. 9 and 10,
a conclusion can be drawn that dimple effect on friction force is
different a little from their effect on friction coefficient.
It is worthy noting that for lower sliding speeds, the dimple
effect on the friction forces are weak, as shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
This is because the lower sliding speed supplies the weak shearing
effect of lubricant, thereby the friction force low. For the larger
sliding speed, the stronger shearing effect of lubricant results in the
larger friction force. Besides this, a decrease of friction force with
increasing h/Rq value can be observed in Figs. 11 and 12. This is
because increasing h/Rq value results in decreasing number of the
contacting point between mating surfaces, as shown in Fig. 13,
thereby the friction force decreasing.
From Figs. 11 and 12, it can also be found that the friction force
is different for g = 1/100 and g = 100 cases under the same other
conditions, which shows the variation trend of the friction force is
sensitive to the surface orientation. It should be pointed out that
variations of the friction force against the applied load is omitted
here, because the variations can be derived from the variations of
friction coefficient against load, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10.
5. Conclusions
The influence of rectangle dimples with flat bottom on the
friction of parallel surfaces was investigated with an experiment
where dimple influence on friction coefficient was first analyzed,
 F. Meng et al. / Applied Surface Science 256 (2010) 2863–2875
and with numerical simulations where the influence on the friction
coefficient and friction force were discussed for randomly
generated Gaussian parallel surfaces with transverse and longitu-
dinal orientations. Meanwhile, the validities of some numerical
results were qualitatively compared with those obtained from the
experiment. Some conclusions are drawn below:
(1) The friction force for the parallel surfaces can decrease due to
the dimple effect over the range of the larger sliding speed,
larger load or smoother surfaces. For the smaller sliding speed
or the smaller load, the effect of the dimples on the friction
force becomes weak, and even can be ignored.
(2) Dimples on parallel surfaces can reduce the friction coefficient
for cases with the smaller ratio of film thickness to roughness
(h/Rq), small roughness or larger load. Moreover, longitudinal
surfaces seem to behave better in lowering friction than
transverse ones in the same conditions. For the case of the
larger ratio of film thickness to roughness (h/Rq), larger
roughness or smaller load, the change in the friction coefficient
for the parallel surfaces due to the dimple effect depends on the
combined influence of the above factors.
(3) According to the above analyses, the positive effect of dimples
in lowering friction for parallel surfaces should be considered
in dimple applications, but the proper choice of the sliding
conditions of mating surfaces is important.
(4) Only the influence of rectangle dimples with flat bottom on the
friction of parallel surfaces was investigated in the present
study, since the kind of dimples can reduce friction to greater
degree than those with other shapers. Therefore, the above
conclusions are only useful references to reasonably design or
use rectangle dimples with flat bottom.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Ford Motor
Company, the Boeing Company, and the National Science
2875
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, US. A part of
this work is also supported by the Natural Science Foundation of PR
China (No. 50975297).
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