Surface topography characterization of automotive cylinder liner surfaces using fractal methods

This paper explores the use of fractal approaches for the possible characterization of automotive cylinder bore surface topography by employing methods such as differential box counting method, power spectral method and structure function method. Three stage plateau honing experiments were conducted to manufacture sixteen cylinder liner surfaces with different surface topographies, for the study. The three fractal methods are applied on the image data obtained using a computer vision system and 3-D profile data obtained using vertical scanning white light interferometer from the cylinder liner surfaces. The computed fractal parameters (fractal dimension and topothesy) are compared and correlated with the measured 3-D Abbott-Firestone curve parameters (S _k, S_pk, S_vk, S_r1 and S_r2) that are currently used for the surface topography characterization cylinder liner surfaces. The analyses of the results indicated that the fractal dimension (D) computed using the vision data as well as 3-D profile data by employing three different fractal methods consistantly showed a negative correlation with the functional surface topographical parameters that represents roughness at peak (S_pk),core (S_k) and valley (S_vk) regions and positive correlation with the upper bearing area (S_r1) and lower bearing area (S_r2) of the automotive of cylinder bore surface.