A numerical approach for investigating thermal contact conductance

Abstract

Thermal resistances occurring at contacting interfaces have key importance for accurately predicting the thermal behavior of machine components. Although many efforts have been made to develop experimentally validated tools, which quantify contact heat transfer without needing to resort to experiments, this has not yet been satisfactorily achieved. The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel approach for predicting contact heat transfer, which involves micro-scale numerical simulation of the contact mechanics and the thermal behavior of three-dimensional bodies, modeled after topographically measured technical surfaces. As is shown, this approach has significant advantages in comparison to previous work on this subject. The simulation tool is described in detail and validated against experiments conducted by means of a transient measurement method involving high-speed infrared thermography. The results show good agreement between measurement and simulation.