Surface texturing can decrease friction in lubricated sliding contact. The majority of existing experimental
work has focused on symmetric-depth-profile surface textures. This experimental work examines
asymmetric-depth-profile surface textures using gap-controlled experiments with Newtonian fluids on a
custom tribo-rheometer setup. Measurements of normal force and shear load are reported as a function
of texture geometry, gap height, and bi-directional sliding velocity. This work shows that, in the absence
of cavitation, surface texture depth symmetry must be broken to produce normal forces (through viscous
effects) for gap-based Reynolds Number up to Reh ¼ ρVh
η ¼ 1:21: Asymmetric surface textures reduce
shear stress and generate normal load, and therefore decrease the effective friction coefficient, which we
observe to be smallest for the shallowest texture angle tested, β¼5.3°.