Frictionless vs. Frictional Contact in Numerical Wear Predictions of Conformal and Non-conformal Sliding Couplings

Abstract

The role of friction on wear evolution is manifold since it interplays with lubrication regime, nominal contact point, and contact pressure distribution. Nevertheless, in the literature many wear models simulate wear assuming frictionless contact conditions to simplify the analyses. That assumption, physically not realistic, often appears as a contradiction, permitted in numerical simulations where friction and wear can be considered independent phenomena.This study aims to validate the frictionless assumption in wear models with steady nominal contact point, such as in many common configurations, e.g. pin on plate/pin on disc. Wear was simulated according to the Archard wear law for both non-conformal and conformal pin-on-plate contact pairs in reciprocating motion, assuming frictionless and frictional contact conditions, varying the coefficient of friction f in the range 0–0.4. Finite Element wear models were developed in Ansys® both with implicit and explicit kinematics. Results demonstrate that the effect of friction on contact pressure distribution and worn profiles and on their evolution is negligible (differences lower than 0.05%). Thus, wear can be predicted using models in frictionless conditions which allow to extremely reduce the computational costs that represent a limit of FE wear simulations. Additionally, a procedure with implicit kinematics was compared to the explicit one resulting valid and computationally convenient, especially in case of non-conformal contact.

Further Validation of a Simple Mathematical Description of Wear and Contact Pressure Evolution in Sliding Contacts

“…In the present study, we aimed to: (a) further validate the analytical procedure by comparing our predictions to other studies in the literature from other research groups; (b) solve some discrepancies observed in the first results at the borders of the worn region; (c) prove the reliability of the application and the procedure to frictional contacts, considering our recent FE results described in [14,15].…”

Numerical Material Testing of Mineral-Impregnated Carbon Fiber Reinforcement for Concrete

“…However, it is incapable of transmitting tensile stresses. For additional information regarding contact modeling with friction, see [44].…”

Pin-on-Plate vs. Pin-on-Disk Wear Tests: Theoretical and Numerical Observations on the Initial Transient Phase

“…The contact was assumed as asymmetric as in this case only one body wears out. Moreover, the contact was simulated as frictionless, since the effect of the friction on wear is negligible as demonstrated in [15]. The analysis was solved by means of an Augmented Lagrange algorithm and the nodal-projected normal from contact was adopted as the detection method with the cylinder and plate/disk as the contact and target body, respectively.…”

“…It is preferred to its inverse that should be considered in the field is worth stressing that when 𝛾 → 0, i.e., → ∞, the PoD → PoP. From Equation ( 16), it can be observed that the ratio is maximum when γ when g(1) = 32/(9π) ≅ 1.132, meaning that the PoD produced higher wear volum 9)- (15).…”