This work presents a finite element study of elasto-plastic hemispherical contact. The results are normalized such that they are valid for macro contacts (e.g., rolling element bearings) and micro contacts (e.g., asperity contact), although micro-scale surface characteristics such as grain boundaries are not considered. The material is modeled as elastic-perfectly plastic. The numerical results are compared to other existing models of spherical contact, including the fully plastic truncation model (often attributed to Abbott and Firestone) and the perfectly elastic case (known as the Hertz contact). This work finds that the fully plastic average contact pressure, or hardness, commonly approximated to be a constant factor of about three times the yield strength, actually varies with the deformed contact geometry, which in turn is dependent upon the material properties (e.g., yield strength). The current work expands on previous works by including these effects and explaining them theoretically. Experimental and analytical results have also been shown to compare well with the current work. The results are fit by empirical formulations for a wide range of interferences (displacements which cause normal contact between the sphere and rigid flat) and materials for use in other applications.

This paper summarizes the submissions to a recently announced contact-mechanics modeling challenge. The task was to solve a typical, albeit mathematically fully defined problem on the adhesion between nominally flat surfaces. The surface topography of the rough, rigid substrate, the elastic properties of the indenter, as well as the short-range adhesion between indenter and substrate, were specified so that diverse quantities of interest, e.g., the distribution of interfacial stresses at a given load or the mean gap as a function of load, could be computed and compared to a reference solution. Many different solution strategies were pursued, ranging from traditional asperity-based models via Persson theory and brute-force computational approaches, to real-laboratory experiments and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of a model, in which the original assignment was scaled down to the atomistic scale. While each submission contained satisfying answers for at least a subset of the posed questions, efficiency, versatility, and accuracy differed between methods, the more precise methods being, in general, computationally more complex. The aim of this paper is to provide both theorists and experimentalists with benchmarks to decide which method is the most appropriate for a particular application and to gauge the errors associated with each one

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In typical metallic contacts, stresses are very high and result in yielding of the material. Therefore, the study of contacts which include simultaneous elastic and plastic deformation is of critical importance. This work reviews the current state-of-the-art in the modeling of single asperity elastic–plastic contact and, in some instances, makes comparisons to original findings of the authors. Several different geometries are considered, including cylindrical, spherical, sinusoidal or wavy, and axisymmetric sinusoidal. As evidenced by the reviewed literature, it is clear that the average pressure during heavily loaded elastic–plastic contact is not governed by the conventional hardness to yield strength ratio of approximately three, but rather varies according to the boundary conditions and deformed geometry. For spherical contact, the differences between flattening and indentation contacts are also reviewed. In addition, this paper summarizes work on tangentially loaded contacts up to the initiation of sliding. As discussed briefly, the single asperity contact models can be incorporated into existing rough surface contact model frameworks. Depending on the size of a contact, the material properties can also effectively change, and this topic is introduced as well. In the concluding discussion, an argument is made for the value of studying hardening and other failure mechanisms, such as fracture as well as the influence of adhesion on elastic–plastic contact.

This work presents a finite element study of elasto-plastic hemispherical contact. The results are normalized such that they are valid for macro contacts (e.g., rolling element bearings) and micro contacts (e.g., asperity contact). The material is modeled as elastic-perfectly plastic. The numerical results are compared to other existing models of spherical contact, including the fully plastic case (known as the Abbott and Firestone model) and the perfectly elastic case (known as the Hertz contact). At the same interference, the area of contact is shown to be larger for the elasto-plastic model than that of the elastic model. It is also shown, that at the same interference, the load carrying capacity of the elasto-plastic modeled sphere is less than that for the Hertzian solution. This work finds that the fully plastic average contact pressure, or hardness, commonly approximated to be a constant factor (about three) times the yield strength, actually varies with the deformed contact geometry, which in turn is dependant upon the material properties (e.g., yield strength). The results are fit by empirical formulations for a wide range of interferences and materials for use in other applications.