The application of polymers in power-transmitting machine elements, e.g., gears, is limited by moderate thermo-mechanical properties and the detrimental accumulation of contact heat, even with external lubrication. Hence, polymer rolling–sliding elements are often prone to thermo-mechanical overload or abrasive wear. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are well known from steel applications for enhancing wear resistance and reducing friction. Since preliminary results indicate promising results for such coatings for polymers as well, their influence on the behavior of lubricated polymer contacts is investigated by numerical simulation. For polymer–steel contacts, the mechanical and thermophysical properties of coating and polymer are varied. The contact geometry is dominated by a local conformity, in which most of the deformation is related to the polymer. The DLC coatings affect film thickness and hydrodynamic pressure only little even for untypical high coating thicknesses. In contrast, the contact temperature decreases already for very thin coatings due to enhanced heat removal. Hence, DLC coatings can act as a thermal barrier protecting the polymer from detrimental heat and protecting the polymer from abrasive wear.

中文翻译：

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涂层聚合物热弹性流体动力学润滑的数值研究

聚合物在动力传动机械元件（例如齿轮）中的应用受到适度的热机械性能和接触热的有害积累的限制，即使使用外部润滑也是如此。因此，聚合物滚动滑动元件通常容易发生热机械过载或磨料磨损。类金刚石碳（DLC）涂层从钢铁应用中众所周知，可增强耐磨性并减少摩擦。由于初步结果也表明这种聚合物涂层也很有希望，因此，通过数值模拟研究了它们对润滑聚合物触点行为的影响。对于聚合物-钢接触，涂层和聚合物的机械和热物理性质各不相同。接触几何由局部一致性决定，其中大部分变形与聚合物有关。即使对于非典型的高涂层厚度，DLC涂层对膜厚度和流体动力压力的影响也很小。相反，由于增强的散热性，对于非常薄的涂层，接触温度已经降低。因此，DLC涂层可以充当隔热层，保护聚合物免受有害热量的影响，并保护聚合物免受磨料的磨损。