Evaluation of contact width for elastic hollow cylinder and flat contact through experimental technique and extending the capabilities of Hertz equation

Abstract

The phenomenon of two surfaces in contact is important in the field of tribology and has been studied by many researchers. The tribological problem arises from the points of contact between two surfaces. This paper presents a numerical and experimental analysis of the contact interaction between two elastic bodies ‘cylinder and flat’. In the numerical analysis Hertz theory is used to determine contact width of elastic contacts. Experimental investigation has been performed using aluminium foil, ink of carbon paper and by footprint method which is used to analyse a real contact area between two bodies for applied load conditions. A comparison of contact width between experimentally evaluated and numerically calculated is carried to validate the experimental procedure. The test results of footprint method are almost equal and very close with the numerical data. The experimental analysis suggested in this paper is useful to determine contact width and distribution of the load and stress in cylindrical roller bearing. Using this experimental method elastic contact between hollow cylinder of 67% hollowness and flat body has been studied. Finally in the present work extended Hertz equation was developed for the calculation of half contact width for hollow cylinder and cylinder/flat body contact.