Mesh-free method for thermal elasto-plastic contact of rough surfaces

A thermal elasto-plastic contact model which can consider the effects of temperature-dependent yield strength is developed to investigate the influences of the steady-state frictional heating on the contact performance of surface asperities and subsurface stress fields between two contacting bodies. The model is verified through the contact analysis of a rigid, isolated cylinder with a thermal elasto-plastic plane. The results show that the contact pressures of elasto-plastic contact with considering the frictional tractions are no longer symmetric. By comparing the results obtained from the EFG-FE coupling method with those from FEM, it reveals that the contact pressures solved by FEM will have numerical oscillation if the FE meshes are improperly partitioned, while this phenomenon will be avoided by using the meshfree methods. Furthermore, the thermal effects on the contact pressure, the real contact area, and the average gap of real rough surfaces with different frictional heat inputs under the thermal elasto-plastic contact conditions are studied.