The Contact Mechanics for Indentation of Single Asperity and Rough Surfaces

Abstract A finite element analysis of a rigid sphere contact with a deformable elastic–plastic plat called indentation model is studied. The numerical results are applied on the rough surfaces contact of the Greenwood-Williamson (G-W) model. A series of the relationships of the rough surfaces contact parameters are obtained. The contact parameters of the indentation model and the flattening model are compared in detail, and the reasons for their differences are analyzed. In the case of single asperity contact, for ω/ωc > 1, the indentation model reaches the initial plastic yield while the flattening model is ω/ωc=1. In ω/ωc=10, the plastic yield reaches the contact surface for the first time, and the corresponding point of the flattening model is relatively earlier in ω/ωc=6. The contact parameters of the rough surface in different plasticity indexes are compared again. On the point of ψ = 0.5, the contact parameters of the flattening model and the indentation model coincide perfectly. For 0.5 < ψ < 4, the difference between the parameters curves become larger and larger. To the point of ψ = 4, when the distance difference reaches the maximum, it begins to decrease until the two curves are close to coincide again. The dimensionless elastic–plastic contact hardness is introduced. The relation between the real contact area and the contact pressure of the indentation model can be acquired quickly. The results show that the geometric shape of deformable contact parts has an important effect on the contact parameters, especially for the extension of the plastic deformation region within a specific range of plasticity index.