Plastic deformation of rough surfaces

Abstract

Friction forces are only transferred within the the real area of contact A real , which is usually smaller than the apparent area of contact Ao. The maximum friction stress τ f ric is therefore determined by the shear limit τmax in the area of real contact and the fraction of the real area of contact (τ f ric = τmax). For rough surfaces the size of A real is governed by the plastic deformation of the surface roughness. We present a fully elasto-plastic halfspace contact formulation based on the work of Jacq et al. [1]. Linear elastic-plastic material behavior is modeled based on v.Mises plasticity with isotropic hardening. The algorithm gives the residual stress as well as the full plastic deformation field due to a frictionless normal contact.