Thermal Study of the Dry Sliding Contact With Third Body Presence

When the thermal aspect of sliding contacts is investigated, few models take into account the presence of a third body at the contact interface. Moreover, when the presence of the third body is considered, its rheology is neglected. For this reason, the thermal study of such contact configuration is not fully understood and relies on strong hypothesis or even important simplifications. To fill this lack of knowledge, a thermal model has been developed embedded in a discrete element scheme. Such investigations highlight the key role played by both thermal and mechanical properties of the contact elements. If the third body rheology can affect the localization of the heat generation leading to important thermal asymmetries, the diffusive nature of the first bodies can also strongly control the phenomenon and accentuate or diminish the initial differences of surfaces temperature for the contacting volumes. The goal of this paper is to bring information or complete existing theories (Blok, H. A., 1937, “Theoretical Study of Temperature Rise at Surface at Actual Contact Under Oilness Lubricating Conditions,” I. Mech. E. Conf. Publ., 2, pp. 222–235;Ryhming, I. L., 1979, “On Temperature and Heat Source Distributions in Sliding Contact Problems,” Acta Mech., 32, pp. 261–274;Dragon-Louiset, M., and Stolz, C., 1999, “Approche Thermodynamique des Phénomenès liés à l’Usure de Contact,” Acad. Sci. Paris, C. R., 327, pp. 1275–1280) but also to bring a new point of view on the differences observed in the past between the numerical predictions and experimental measurements.