A basic theoretical study of the temperature rise in sliding contact with multiple contacts

The objectives of this paper are to develop a theoretical solution for the temperature rise due to sliding contact between surfaces with multiple, int eracting asperities and to use this solution to examine the effects of the important contact area and system parameters. A solution based on the Green 's function method is developed for the basic problem of two half-space reg ions in sliding contact with any arbitrarily specified arrangement of recta ngular asperities. Studies are conducted to demonstrate the effects of the contact area parame ters, namely the number, size, spacing and orientation of the contacts, as well as sliding velocity. Results indicate that the contact temperatures ar e extremely sensitive to the number and relative spacing between contacts, where subdivision of a single contact into separated pieces significantly r educes the contact temperature rises. The orientation of the contacts relat ive to the sliding direction is shown to have only a small influence on tem perature. The shape of the contacts also has only a small influence, except in the case of contact patches with large aspect ratios where significantl y lower surface temperatures can occur. Sliding speed is shown to be extrem ely important in that increased speed causes both higher temperature levels and greater interaction between contacts due to the convective effect. The current paper is intended to describe the basic solution methodology fo r calculating temperature rises due to multiple, interacting contacts and t o show some fundamental trends for a selected set of regularly arranged con tact area distributions. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.