Application of the finite element submodeling technique in a single point contact and wear problem

Abstract

Summary Finite element simulation is a powerful tool to study and predict the wear behavior of different mechanical systems. However, the high computational cost required to obtain accurate numerical solutions is a crucial aspect especially for large and complex models. The present study proposes a possible solution to overcome this limitation by exploiting the potentiality of the submodeling technique, whose application to wear problem is still rare in the literature. A global‐local approach for wear analysis is presented and validated for a simple pin‐on‐disk wear test. In a preliminary step, different submodeling techniques were implemented and compared. They differed for the quantity (nodal forces and/or displacements) transferred from the global model to the local one. Numerical models have been developed in Ansys® mechanical APDL using its new wear simulation and mesh smoothing routines. Results suggest that the proposed strategy can significantly reduce the computational cost of finite element wear models. Some interesting points on the use of submodeling in contact problems are also discussed.

3-D FEM Wear Prediction of Brass Sliding against Bearing Steel Using Constant Contact Pressure Approximation Technique

“…Hence, the contact pressure gets distributed over a larger area and it starts becoming constant. A similar variation in contact pressure was also observed by Curreli et al [19]. Therefore, to minimize the simulation time of 3-D simulations, the simulations are run for the number of cycles during which there is a large variation of contact pressure.…”

“…Podra et al [5] used a maximum allowable time increment approach, to minimize the computational time. Curreli et al [19] used the sub modelling approach to minimize the time required in FEM wear simulations. Similarly, Kim et al [20] and Mukras et al [21] applied the extrapolation approach for decreasing the simulation time in oscillating contacts.…”

Submodeling in wear predictive finite element models with multipoint contacts

“…A value of the edge length w = 0.9 mm was chosen so that the boundaries of the LMs could be assumed to be far enough away from the stress concentration regions. 7,8 The BCs for the GMs are shown in Figure 2. The top of the pin was built-in while the load L N was applied in a pilot node N, normal to the bottom surface of the plate.…”

“…When dealing with generic MPC problems, it is necessary to consider some potential issues related to the application of the original wear submodeling procedure proposed in the previous study for a SPC case. 7 The reason can be explained by considering the simple schematic example depicted in Figure 3. For an SPC problem, the constant load L N applied F I G U R E 3 Schematic example that helps to describes the differences in terms of total contact force distribution on the contact surfaces before and during wear for a single point (left) and multipoint contact and wear problem (right)…”

“…However, also estimating wear within a single cycle can be time consuming, especially in non‐conformal contacts, where fine meshes are required. Only recently, some of the co‐authors of this article proposed the application of the submodeling technique to wear problems for a single point contact (SPC) 7 . The main idea behind the submodeling approach is that by using a combination of a global coarse model of the whole system and a local fine one of the region of interest, it is possible to reduce the computational cost and provide accurate numerical results (Figure 1).…”