Study of a macroscopic sliding contact thermal model from microscopic models

The macroscopic sliding contact thermal model studied here involves two par ameters: a sliding contact thermal resistance and a heat generation coeffic ient which can be determined from a microscopic model. For the two proposed microscopic models, the aim is to provide correlations which allow fast an d easy determination of the two macroscopic parameters. The various definit ions of the thermal resistance are also studied and our results are compare d with other published work. The influence of the microscopic model on the macroscopic parameters is studied. It is shown that the heat generation coe fficient depends on the location of the heat generated by friction. (C) 200 1 editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.