Plastic deformation of rough surfaces

Friction forces are only transferred within the the real area of contact A_real, which is usually smaller than the apparent area of contact A_o. The maximum friction stress τ_fric is therefore determined by the shear limit τ_max in the area of real contact and the fraction of the real area of contact (τ_fric = τ_max (A_real/A_o)). For rough surfaces the size of A_real is governed o 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. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)