Numerical methodology to implement thermal effects in simulation of long stroke wear tribotests

Abstract

The present paper reports the methodology used to numerically implement thermal effects in long stroke tribometer (LST) wear tests. Thermal effects correspond to the heating produced by friction between the parts in tests. Those tests consist in the sliding, in reciprocating configuration, of samples of thermoplastic polyurethane, over a fixed steel countermaterial. The numerical implementation of the LST tests is carried out by means of fully coupled thermal-stress finite element simulations, using different theories of convection and conduction for setting up parameters in polymer–steel contact pairs. This methodology is applied to the numerical analysis of different load and test reference temperature conditions, setting up a validation with experimental tests under some specific conditions. This work is only focused on the numerical implementation of thermal effects. As further step to this work, this methodology will be applied to the development and numerical implementation of a polymer–steel wear model with thermal effects, characterised from wear tribometer test results.