MODEL OF THERMAL CONTACT RESISTANCE BETWE EN 2 CYLINDRICAL SURFACES -3D MICROSCOPIC APPROACH

Thermal contact resistances between solid materials constitute a major challenge in numerous industries. Most works on this subject deal wit h the modeling of the contact resistance between flat surfaces. A micr oscopic modeling of the cylinder-cylinder contact in steady state is p roposed in this paper. This three-dimensional model is completely anal ytical. It first allows a representation of the thermal contact resist ance using a three resistance network: the constriction resistance is thus pinpointed. It also shows that. generally, the cylinder-cylinder constriction resistance can be replaced bq-a plane-plant constriction resistance: this result allows an extension of correlations relative t o plane-plane models to the cylinder-cylinder case.