STUDY OF THE FORMATION OF CONTACT BETWEEN ROUGH SURFACES BASED ON THEPARTICLE METHOD

A model is proposed for the rough surface of a solid based on the part icle method. Although the particle size is selected arbitrarily in thi s study, the evolution of the actual area of contact and the change in stress at the points of contact show fairly good agreement with conce pts derived from experimental investigations. The experiments show tha t as two surfaces converge, the pressure at the contacts is considerab ly higher than the nominal value, and this leads to plastic deformatio n of the surface layers much greater than the bulk deformation. The mo del clearly shows the controlling factors and how the stressed state o f the surface layer is formed. The model can be used to analyze intera ction between surfaces, not only for the stationary case, but also whe n these undergo relative displacement. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7850(98)00603-X]