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The contact behavior of elastic/plastic non-Gaussian rough surfaces

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A three-dimensional contact analysis was conducted to investigate the contact behavior of elastic--perfectly plastic solids with non-Gaussian rough surfaces. The effect of skewness, kurtosis and hardness on contact statistics and the effect of skewness and kurtosis on subsurface stress are studied. Non-Gaussian rough surfaces are generated by the computer with skewness, Sk, of −0.3, 0.0 and 0.3, and kurtosis, K, of 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. Contact pressures and subsurface stresses are obtained by contact analysis of a semi-infinite solid based on the use of influence functions and patch solutions. Variation of fractional elastic/plastic contact area, maximum contact pressure and interplanar separation as a function of applied load were studied at different values of skewness and kurtosis. Contact pressure profiles, von Mises stresses, tensile and shear stress contours as a function of friction coefficient were also calculated for surfaces with different skewness and kurtosis. In this study, it is observed that surfaces with Sk = 0.3 and K = 4 in the six surfaces considered have a minimum contact area and maximum interplanar separation, which may provide low friction and stiction. The critical material hardness is defined as the hardness at which severe level of plastic asperity deformation corresponding to the Greenwood and Williamson’s cut-off A plastic/A real = 0.02 occurs for a given surface and load condition. The critical material hardness of surfaces with Sk = 0.3 and K = 4 is higher than that of other surfaces considered.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by Korea Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (KRF-2004-214-D00213).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanotribology Laboratory for Information Storage and MEMS/NEMS (NLIM), The Ohio State University, 650 Ackerman Road, Suite 255, Columbus, OH, 43202-1107, USA

    T.W. Kim & B. Bhushan

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, San 30 Changjeon-Dong, 609-735, Kumjeong-Gu, Pusan, Korea

    Y.J. Cho

Authors
  1. T.W. Kim
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  2. B. Bhushan
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  3. Y.J. Cho
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Correspondence to B. Bhushan.

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Kim, T., Bhushan, B. & Cho, Y. The contact behavior of elastic/plastic non-Gaussian rough surfaces. Tribol Lett 22, 1–13 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-006-9036-5

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