Scale-Dependent Contact Deformation of Layered Media Due to Multi-Wavelength Surface Roughness Effects

In view of the self-affinity property exhibited by many engineering surfaces, multi-scale roughness leads to scale-dependent deformation of asperity contacts. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate real surface topographies and local constitutive models of the deformation mode of interacting asperities in contact mechanics analyses. A theoretical treatment based on multi-wavelength surface topography description and asperity deformation models is presented and its applicability is demonstrated for layered media with fractal surfaces.