Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

The relative sliding motion of two elastic bodies in contact induces the wear process and contact shape evolution. The transient process at the constant relative velocity between the bodies tends to a steady state occurring at fixed contact stress and strain distribution. This state corresponds to a minimum of the wear dissipation power. The optimality conditions of the functional provide a contact stress distribution and a wear rate compatible with the rigid body punch motion. The present paper is devoted to the analysis of wear processes occurring for periodic sliding of contacting bodies, assuming cyclic steady state conditions for mechanical fields. From the condition of the rigid body wear velocity a formula for summarized contact pressure in the periodic steady state is derived. The optimization problem is formulated for calculation of the contact surface shape induced by wear in the steady periodic state.

steady wear process, periodic sliding, unilateral contact, p-version of finite element method, shape optimization