Development of a representative test specimen for frictional contact in spline joint couplings

The frictional contact conditions in a helical spline joint coupling under torsional and axial loads are studied using finite element analyses. Compar isons of spline root torsional stresses are made with photoelastic measurem ents. Surface contact tractions, relative slip distributions and subsurface localized stress component and equivalent stress distributions are present ed for both the external and the internal spline contact surfaces. The work is important as a basis for understanding and predicting the fatigue, cont act fatigue, fretting fatigue, wear and fretting wear characteristics of th e coupling. A representative test specimen concept is presented which seeks to capture the local contact variable distributions in the spline coupling , with a view to predicting the wear and the contact and fretting fatigue p erformance of the coupling.