THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ELASTICALLY CONTACTING IDEAL ROUGH SURFACES

The analysis of the elastic contact of ideal rough surfaces is present ed in this paper. The rough asperities are assumed to be spherical wit h the same vertical height and spatial distance. The mutual influence of asperities is considered. Numerical results show that for the same load, the contact area is less than the Hertzian prediction while the pressure distribution is still of a Hertzian type, but is increased to some extent. We find that the asperity interaction is associated with a parameter, called the ''loading level,'' which combines the surface texture, mechanical properties, and the nominal mean pressure. Of sig nificant importance is the discovery of the variation of the reference plane position with the contact load In the classical theory of rough contact (Greenwood and Williamson, 1966), the reference plane was in fact assumed to be in the mean line position. We prove that the locati on of the reference plane is determined by the number of contacting as perities and the lending level, thus making the analysis of the contac t of rough surfaces somewhat complex.