Thermo-mechanical contact between a rigid sphere and an elastic–plastic sphere.pdfVIP

Tribology International 95 (2016) 132–138 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tribology International journal homepage: /locate/triboint Thermo-mechanical contact between a rigid sphere and an elastic–plastic sphere Wenping Song a, Longqiu Li a,n, Andrey Ovcharenko b, Frank E. Talke c a Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China b Western Digital Corporation, San Jose, USA c University of California, San Diego, USA article info Article history: Received 30 May 2015 Received in revised form 15 October 2015 Accepted 10 November 2015 Available online 1 December 2015 Keywords: Thermo-mechanical contact Spherical contact Plowing Flattening abstract The mechanical and thermal response of a rigid sphere sliding over an elastic–plastic sphere with radius larger than that of the rigid sphere, namely, plowing contact model, are investigated using a ?nite element method. Dimensionless solutions for the maximum values of contact force, friction force, contact area, residual interference, and interfacial temperature rise are obtained as a function of dimensionless contact time. A detailed comparison is performed with the results between the plowing contact model and the ?attening contact model in which an elastic–plastic sphere ?attened by a rigid sphere with radius larger than that of the elastic–plastic sphere. 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Contact mechanics is important for design of mechanical and electromechanical components, such as gears [1], hard disk drives [2] and micro-switches [3]. In many studies involving spherical contacts, two different models of spherical contact have been used. One is the ?attening model, where a rigid sphere is sliding over an elastic–plastic sphere with a radius smaller than that of the rigid sphere. The other one is the so-called plowing model, where a rigid sphere is sliding over an elastic–plastic sphere with a radius larger than that of the rigid sphere. These two models look similar at ?rst glance. How