An approximate thermal contact conductance correlation which does not depend upon the surface asperity slope was developed. Published surface texture data for 65 specimens were used to establish a relationship between the average roughness and the RMS asperity slope, which was then used to develop a new approximate thermal contact conductance correlation. The investigation was conducted for a range of surface roughness typical of contacting surfaces. Comparison to limited test data and to 2080 simulated contact joints, indicates the new approximate thermal contact conductance correlation has an expected RMS error of approximately 23 percent.
A thermomechanical model for nominally flat, rough contacting surfaces coated with a metallic layer is developed. The model is shown to agree quite well with thermal test data obtained using nickel specimens, with one side of the contact coated with silver and the other side glass-bead blasted. In addition, it is demonstrated that a coated joint can be reduced to an equivalent bare joint by employing an effective hardness and an effective thermal conductivity. Using this technique, 61 coated test points were correlated, with an RMS difference of ± 12.6 percent between the data and a correlation which had previously been used only for bare contacts.
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