Abstract In this work we assess the applicability of the adjoint optimization technique for determining optimal surface topographies of two surfaces in relative motion in presence of a thin lubricant films that can cavitate. Among the existing numerical tools for topology optimization in engineering problems, the adjoint method represents a promising and versatile technique, which can also be applied to the field of full film tribology. In particular, the design of surfaces with complex textures can thoroughly benefit from this method, as it allows dealing with a large number of degrees of freedom at low computational cost. We show that this optimization method can be successfully applied to cavitating lubricant flows such as in pin-on-disc tribometers, giving the possibility to extend the results also to other typical applications such as journal and slider bearings. It is shown that the adjoint method can optimize the whole gap height distribution point by point in a more efficient way than traditional optimization approaches and parametric studies. In particular, thanks to the sensitivity analysis the adjoint method is able to find the placement and depth profile of each texture element.

中文翻译：

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通过伴随方法优化流体动力润滑中的表面纹理

摘要 在这项工作中，我们评估了伴随优化技术的适用性，该技术用于确定存在可空化的薄润滑膜的相对运动的两个表面的最佳表面形貌。在现有的用于工程问题拓扑优化的数值工具中，伴随法代表了一种很有前途的通用技术，它也可以应用于全膜摩擦学领域。特别是，具有复杂纹理的表面设计可以完全受益于这种方法，因为它允许以较低的计算成本处理大量的自由度。我们表明这种优化方法可以成功地应用于空化润滑剂流，例如在销盘式摩擦计中，还可以将结果扩展到其他典型应用，例如轴颈和滑动轴承。结果表明，伴随方法可以比传统的优化方法和参数研究更有效地逐点优化整个间隙高度分布。特别是，由于敏感性分析，伴随方法能够找到每个纹理元素的位置和深度轮廓。