Atomistic simulations of the lubricative mechanism of a nano-alkane lubricating film between two layers of Cu–Zn alloy*

Abstract

We describe simulations of lubrication by a hexadecane molecular lubricating film during the shearing process of a Cu-Zn alloy performed using the atomistic method. The results indicate that with increasing Zn contents, the interface slip between the alloy wall and the lubricating film first decreases and then increases, according to variations of the radius distribution function (RDF), while the interface slip reaches its lowest value of 0.12 during the shearing of CuZn30 alloy. We also discuss the relationship between interface roughness and the lubricating film. During film lubrication, the interface’s roughness effectively inhibits interfacial slip. For the convex contact model, the presence of the hexadecane lubricating film reduces the interfacial contact pressure from 11.9 GPa to 8.7 GPa and the friction coefficient from 0.81 to 0.52.