THE EFFECTS OF SURFACE-ROUGHNESS AND TOPOGRAPHY ON THE CONTACT-BEHAVIOR OF ELASTIC BODIES

The reel area of contact, average gap, and mean asperity contact press ure are important variables for understanding friction, wear, and lubr ication in contacting systems. They are known as ''performance variabl es.'' Contact simulations were conducted for a wide range of surface t opographies and an extensive amount of information was generated. Usin g this information, the performance variables were curve fitted and co nvenient mathematical relationships were formulated. The surfaces used in the simulations were numerically generated and they varied widely in statistical roughness properties, ranging from isotropic to strongl y anisotropic. The effect of surface roughness on the performance vari ables were studied using three parameters-composite Root Mean Square r oughness (sigma), autocorrelation length (lambda(x)), and asperity as pect ratio (gamma).