BEHAVIOR OF ELASTIC-PLASTIC ROUGH-SURFACE CONTACTS AS AFFECTED BY SURFACE-TOPOGRAPHY, LOAD, AND MATERIAL HARDNESS

Surface roughness plays an important role in affecting friction, wear, and lubrication of contacting bodies. A small change in the distribut ion of the asperity heights and widths can have a significant effect o n the performance variables which include the real area of contact, th e average gap, and the average asperity contact pressure. A series of contact simulations were conducted in order to investigate the effects of the surface topography, material hardness and load on the deformat ion behavior of the rough surfaces. These surfaces were numerically ge nerated by computer and varied widely in statistical roughness propert ies, ranging from isotropic to strongly anisotropic. The current simul ations took into account the elastic-plastic deformation behavior of t he asperities. Using the contact simulation results, the performance v ariables were curve-fitted to convenient analytical formulas as functi ons of the surface roughness parameters, material hardness, and load.