A REMARK ON THE FLASH TEMPERATURE THEORY

The classical solution of the temperature development in a sliding sol id pair treats the thermal conductivity as a non-variant quantity that is not affected by temperature elevation. This may introduce an erron eous estimate of the temperature distribution in the contacting pair. This error may be intensified in the presence of considerable temperat ure gradients. In this note, we apply the well known Kirchoff transfor mation to correct the temperature estimates in a practical case of sli ding friction. Thus, accounting for the point wise variation of the th ermal conductivity in the contacting pair. We compare temperature esti mates, obtained by the classical solution, to those obtained by the va riable conductivity solution. The results indicate that the behavior o f the thermal conductivity with temperature is influential to the magn itude of the peak flash temperatures developed at the tip of the conta ct asperities. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.