A COMPARISON OF ELASTIC AND PLASTIC CONTACT MODELS FOR THE PREDICTIONOF THERMAL CONTACT CONDUCTANCE

Experimentally determined thermal contact resistance (conductance) dat a are compared with predictions based on two different theories. One o f the theories assumes elastic contact, while the other theory is base d on the assumption of plastic contact. Even though the high plastic i ndex calculated for the contacting surface suggested that contacting a sperities would deform plastically, the experimental data generally ag ree better with the predictions obtained using the elastic contact mod el than with the predictions obtained using the plastic contact model.