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)