Analysis of Contact Area Between an Elasto-Plastic Rough Body and a Flat Body Under Different Working Mode

Abstract

A thermo-mechanical coupling contact model between a fractal rough body and a flat body is established. In the model, the heat flux coupling between the sliding surfaces and the effect of elasto-plastic deformation of the rough body are considered. To obtain the transient microcontact process between the rough body and the flat body during rotating sliding friction, the thermo-mechanical problem under this three-dimensional model is solved by the nonlinear finite element multi-physical methods. The comparisons of the real contact area are analyzed under two different working modes, including loading processes with and without frictional rotating. During the loading and rotating process, the shear stress and the total frictional force on the frictional rough interface, and the equivalent plastic strain of the contact asperity are larger. All these including the thermal expansion make the real contact area increase with the applied normal load much faster under the working mode of loading and rotating than it does under the only loading mode.