A Simple Semi-Analytic Contact Mechanical Model for Tangential and Torsional Fretting Wear of Axisymmetric Contacts

Abstract

Fretting wear of axisymmetric contacts is considered within the framework of the Hertz–Mindlin approximation and the Archard law for the linear wear. If the characteristic time scale for the wear is much larger than the duration of a single fretting oscillation, the profile change due to wear during one fretting cycle can be neglected for the contact problem as a zero-order approximation. This allows to give an exact contact solution during each fretting cycle, depending on the current worn profile, and thus for the explicit statement of an ordinary integro-differential equation system for the time-evolution of the fretting profile, which can be easily solved numerically. The proposed method gives the same results as a known, contact mechanically more rigorous simulation procedure that also operates within the framework of the Hertz–Mindlin approximation, but works significantly faster than the latter one. Tangential and torsional fretting wear are considered in detail. A comparison of the numerical prediction for the evolution of the worn profile in partial slip torsional fretting of a rubber ball on abrasive paper shows good agreement with experimental results from the literature.