Original Article

Proc IMechE Part J:

J Engineering Tribology
Study on temperature rise distribution 2021, Vol. 235(1) 138–148
! IMechE 2020

of contact surface under cyclic load Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/1350650120919877
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Ling Li , Haifei Tian, Qiangqiang Yun and Wei Chu

Abstract
A large amount of heat is generated during the friction of joint surfaces, which has a significant influence on the contact
characteristics of surfaces, causing deformation or failure of key components. A two-dimensional friction-thermal struc-
ture coupling contact model of cylinder/plane was established in ABAQUS. The effects of roughness under different
fractal parameters, tangential load amplitude and cycle number on the temperature rise distribution of a contact surface
under normal cyclic loading were studied. The results show that with the increase of roughness and tangential load
amplitude, the area of thermal effect becomes more obvious and the temperature rise of the contact surface increases. It
is also found that the heat affected zone is mainly distributed near the surface of the contact area with a high-tempera-
ture field generated, while the temperature rise amplitude decreases gradually along the depth direction. In addition, the
contact surface nodes have a similar temperature rise distribution process and the farther away from the contact center
(x ¼ 0.3 mm), the smaller the temperature rise, which is consistent with the simulation results of the published literature.
For the same tangential load amplitude, the surface temperature rise amplitude under the normal cyclic load is lower
than that of the normal constant load. The temperature rise of the surface increases with the increase of the number of
fretting cycles.

Keywords
Cylindrical/plane contact model, fretting contact, cyclic load, temperature rise, fractal parameter

Date received: 29 July 2019; accepted: 12 March 2020

Introduction temperature rise caused by friction dissipation.6–9

Fretting is the motion of micro and nanometer mag-
nitude amplitudes between machine components in a
vibration condition.1 During the fretting process, fric-
tional thermal effects and mechanical effects are gen-
erated between the joint surfaces, which lead to the
conversion of mechanical energy to heat energy and
rise the contact surface temperature. The increase of
temperature on the micro-scale will lead to the change
of material properties in the contact zone, which will
affect the contact behavior between the asperity and
the friction and wear process. The macroscopic tem-
perature field generated by frictional heat will cause
the frictional thermal stress field to change, resulting
in deformation, fracture, as well as thermal stress
behavior of the joint surfaces, and so on. Therefore,
studying the temperature field distribution and vari-
ation caused by frictional heat generation during the
fretting process plays an important role in further
improving the tribology principle and the design of
the friction pair.
For the fretting contact between the joint surfaces,
some researchers have studied the frictional behavior
between the fretting contact2–5 and the contact surface
Kalin and Vizintin10 compared the differences
between different flash temperature calculation
models under fretting contact conditions, the results
showing the key differences between various models
and the importance of friction interface characteristics
for temperature calculation. Nosko11 obtained the
analytical expressions of heat distribution coefficient
and contact temperature between two objects by con-
sidering the frictional heat generation and heat distri-
bution when the objects with adhesive deformation
are sliding relative to each other and studied the influ-
ence of adhesive deformation heat on surface heat
flow. Qin et al.12 used the finite element method to
analyze the influence of roughness on the friction
shear stress and temperature rise distribution in
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xi’an University of
Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China
Corresponding author:
Ling Li, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xi’an
University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China.
Email: liling@xauat.edu.cn
Li et al.
steel–steel fretting contact. The results show that the
rough contact model of friction shear stress distribu-
tion is discrete and stress concentration is localized,
such that the results of the temperature rise peak
value are greater than the smooth contact model.
Yamamoto et al.13 estimated the distance between
contact surfaces by considering the surface roughness,
studied the temperature rise at the sliding interface of
E52100 steel by experiment, estimated the actual con-
tact area ratio according to the temperature simula-
tion data, and discussed the temperature rise from the
perspective of the actual contact area and entropy
balance caused by friction energy. Fei and Kun14 stu-
died the thermal response of the fretting sliding of
titanium alloy by numerical method, taking friction
dissipation, plastic dissipation and other factors into
consideration, the effect of plastic dissipation on tem-
perature rise during fretting is discussed. Jin et al.15
studied the influence of debris formation on tempera-
ture rise distribution in the process of wear by experi-
mental method and found that the formation of
debris leads to a significant increase in local tempera-
ture rise. Waddad et al.16 established an effective ther-
mal contact model based on heat source theory and
studied the effects of material properties, roughness,
velocity, and interface layer on heat distribution and
surface temperature by numerical analysis. Based on
generalized Ohm’s law, Zheng et al.17 established the
heat mesh model of high-speed angular contact ball
bearing, and the equations were solved by the Gauss–
Seidel method to obtain the node temperature of the
contact surface. The influence of cooling/lubrication
operation parameters and structural effects on the
temperature rise distribution of the bearing were fur-
ther studied. Jones and Pitt18 used lock-in dissipative
thermography to study the question of plasticity
induced crack tip closure. It was found that the
region directly adjacent to the crack tip, where the
dissipated energy is directly related to crack tip plas-
ticity, the region away from the crack tip where
energy loss is associated with rubbing of the crack
faces. In addition, the stress field behind the crack
was found to be out of phase with respect to the
global loading. Kadin and Sherif19 used the finite
element method and assumed that the energy gener-
ated by friction was distributed to study the formation
of white etching decorative cracks in rolling contact
fatigue. The results showed that amorphization and
white etching matter formation due to friction at the
crack faces in rolling contact fatigue can occur.
All the above studies are based on the constant
normal load without considering the normal cyclic
load. In fact, the contact load of components in prac-
tical engineering is complex and variable, while
researchers have found through extensive studies
that the effects of cyclic normal load on wear, fatigue,
and temperature rise between joint surfaces cannot be
ignored. For example, Fouvry et al.20 established a
cylindrical/plane contact model and studied the
139
influence of sliding frequency, contact size, and
cyclic normal load on fretting wear. Meanwhile,
Majzoobi and Abbasi21 used a new test device to
study the impact of peening on the fretting fatigue
life of Al7075-T6 under cyclic loading. The results
showed that the cyclic contact load significantly
reduced the fretting fatigue life, and peening can
improve the fretting fatigue life. Abbasi and
Majzoobi22 studied the effect of high temperature on
the fretting fatigue life of AL7075-T6 under cyclic
normal load via experiments and found that high tem-
perature has a decreasing effect on fretting fatigue life,
especially in the state of low cycle fatigue. Since direct
measurement of temperature near the fretting contact
area is very difficult, the true contact temperature can
only be estimated by analytical models or computer
simulation software.
In this paper, the influence of cyclic load on the
temperature rise distribution of the fretting contact
surface is studied by finite element method. A rough
surface profile is constructed by fractal theory, a
Python script is created to import the fractal surface
profile coordinates constructed in MATLAB using
the Weierstrass–Mandelbrot (W–M) function into
ABAQUS, and the use of spline curve fitting contour
coordinates is demonstrated. A finite element model
of fretting contact is established by ABAQUS soft-
ware. The fretting simulation calculation of normal
cyclic load and normal constant load are carried out
under constant tangential displacement amplitude. By
changing the tangential displacement amplitude, the
cyclic load amplitude, and the number of load cycle,
the effect of the normal cyclic load on the temperature
rise distribution of the fretting contact surface can be
revealed for the subsequent study of the contact sur-
face temperature rise between mechanical joints.
Finite element model
Rough surface features
The height of the two-dimensional rough surface pro-
file is simulated by W–M function, and the function
expression for simulating the two-dimensional surface
profile is shown as follows23
X
n2
cos 2 n x
ZðxÞ ¼ GD1 ð1Þ
n¼n1
 ð2DÞn
where Z(x) is the height of the random surface profile,
x is the position coordinate of the profile, D is the
fractal dimension, and G is the fractal scale param-
eter.  n is the spatial frequency of the profile and 
( > 1, generally taken as 1.512) is a parameter that
determines the density of frequency. Due to the
unstable random process of roughness contour, the
relationship between the minimum frequency of
contour structure and roughness sample length is
140
 n1 & 1/L1, where n1 is the initial term of the W–M
function, and L1 (L1 ¼ 0.6 mm) is the sampling length
of surface topography.
When L1 ¼ 0.6 mm,  ¼ 1.5, n1 ¼ 6, n2 ¼ 90, the
profile curves under different fractal parameters are
obtained in two cases: (1) changing the feature scale
coefficients G but the same fractal dimension D
(D ¼ 1.57) and (2) changing the fractal dimension D
but maintaining the same scale factor G (G ¼ 4.35e-
11 m). According to equation (1), the program is
written in MATLAB software to generate the corres-
ponding profile curve, as shown in Figure 1. The pro-
file curve coordinates are substituted into equation (2)
to obtain the roughness under different characteristic
scale coefficients and fractal dimensions, as shown in
Table 1.
Z
1 L1  
Ra ¼ ZðxÞdx ð2Þ
L1 0
When the fractal dimension D does not change, as
can be seen from Figure 1(a), the complexity and
irregularity of the profile curve do not change with
the increasing scale coefficient G, but the peak value
of the surface profile curve gradually increases as sur-
face profile gets rougher. Under the scale coefficient G
being given a certain value, it can be clearly seen from
Figure 1(b) that by changing the size of fractal dimen-
sion D, the profile shapes obtained are highly similar.
With the increasing of fractal dimension D, the image
fluctuations tend to be consistent, showing self-simi-
larity. The surface peak and valley values gradually
decrease, the surface profile becomes smoother and
the roughness decreases.
Simulation model
As shown in Figure 2, a two-dimensional cylinder/
plane contact temperature–displacement coupling
analysis model was established in ABAQUS. The
radius of the cylinder is 6 mm, and the length and
width of the lower specimen are 12 mm and 6 mm,
respectively. The materials of the upper and lower
specimens are the same, with elastic isotropic homo-
geneous material properties as shown in Table 2.
According to the relevant material manual, it can be
known that the setting of material properties is based
on ASTMA193/193M-2015. In the model, it is
assumed that all the frictional work is converted
into frictional heat, while the frictional heat flow is
evenly distributed between cylindrical and rectangular
specimens. The influence of deformation and wear
debris on cause contact geometry parameters change
and temperature field distribution is ignored. The
effect of wear on surface roughness and shape is
ignored. The heat convection between the contact sur-
face and surrounding environment as well as mutual
heat conduction of contact areas are considered.
Proc IMechE Part J: J Engineering Tribology 235(1)
The boundary condition is that the bottom of the
lower specimen is fixed, and the cylinder specimen is
in contact with the rectangular specimen under the
action of normal load. In Figure 2, S is the tangential
periodic displacement load applied to the center of the
top surface of the cylinder specimen using the multi-
point constraints option, under the condition that
frequency is 40 Hz and the upper specimen keeps hori-
zontal reciprocating motion. The four-node plane
strain heat-coupled reduced integration element
(CPE4RT) is chosen to mesh both of the parts.
The contact property of the model is set and the
contact between cylinder and plane is defined. The tan-
gential behavior is set as the Coulomb’s friction law
with isotropic friction to calculate the frictional stress
caused by sliding. The friction coefficient is 0.6,24 the
normal behavior is set as the hard contact, the finite
slip algorithm is adopted, and the tangential constraint
is set as the penalty function method. The heat con-
duction and heat generation are set within the speci-
men, and the surface heat exchange is set on the model
to make the heat generated during the fretting contact
reach the heat balance, such that there is no heat
exchange between the upper and lower specimens of
the model, and the temperature between each specimen
is equal. Heat transfer through convection to the envir-
onment is considered in this model by defining the con-
vective heat transfer coefficient. The boundary
conditions are set as surface heat exchange type inter-
actions, and the value of convection heat transfer coef-
ficient selected in this work is 5 W/(m2 C).25 In the
cylinder/plane finite element model, the master–slave
interaction algorithm is adopted to define two contact
surfaces. The lower surface of the cylindrical specimen
is set as the main face, and the upper surface of the
lower test piece is set as the slave face. This setting is to
extract the contact variables of the contact area in the
simulation model.
When creating a rough surface contact model, a
Python script is created to import the fractal surface
profile coordinates constructed in MATLAB using the
W–M function input into ABAQUS, alongside spline
curve fitting contour coordinates, while a profile curve
with a length of 0.6 mm is introduced to simulate the
rough surface of the lower test piece without the need
to simulate the whole upper rough surface of the lower
test piece. The contact area of the cylindrical-planar
model is mesh refined, where the mesh sizes of the
smooth contact model and rough contact model are
10 mm  10 mm and 5 mm  5 mm respectively.
Loading history
The loading process of the two-dimensional cylinder/
plane finite element model is shown in Figure 3. Figure
3(a) and (b) shows the loading process of normal con-
stant load and normal cyclic load, respectively.
In Figure 3, the analysis step type of 0–1 is the static
analysis step. The analysis step type of 1–2.5 is the
Li et al. 141

(a) 10-6
2
G=1.35e-11m
1.5 G=4.35e-11m
G=7.35e-11m
1

Profile height/ mm 0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
x/mm

(b) -6
10
1.5
D=1.57
D=1.62
1 D=1.67

0.5
Profile height/ m

-0.5

-1

-1.5
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
x/mm

Figure 1. Surface profile curves under different fractal parameters. (a) Surface profile curves with different scale coefficients
(D ¼ 1.57). (b) Surface profile curves with different fractal dimensions (G ¼ 4.35e-11 m).

Table 1. Roughness under different fractal parameters.

G ¼ 1.35e-11 m G ¼ 4.35e-11 m G ¼ 7.35e-11 m D ¼ 1.62 D ¼ 1.67

Fractal parameter D ¼ 1.57 D ¼ 1.57 D ¼ 1.57 G ¼ 4.35e-11 m G ¼ 4.35e-11 m

Ra (mm) 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.16 0.05

transient thermal–mechanical coupling step, and the indicates the tangential sinusoidal load S was per-
thermal–mechanical coupling time step length is 1.5. formed 60 cycles in this analysis step. During the simu-
The normal load P is applied in the analysis step 0–1. lation experiment, the phase difference between the
In Figure 3(a), the maximum value is reached at the normal load and the tangential load is zero, and their
end of step 1, and it remains constant in analysis step frequency and cycle numbers are consistent,
1–2.5. Figure 3(b) shows that the initial value is respectively.
reached at the end of step 1 of analysis, and is applied
in a sinusoidal form in analysis step 1–2.5. The max-
imum cyclic load is the same as the maximum constant
Temperature rise coupling analysis
load. The tangential displacement sinusoidal load S is The temperature rise distribution of the fretting
applied in the analysis steps 1–2.5, while N ¼ 60 contact region is obtained through the
142 Proc IMechE Part J: J Engineering Tribology 235(1)

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the finite element model.

Table 2. Material properties.12

Young’s Density Conductivity Specific heat Coefficient of

Material modulus E (GPa) Poisson’s v  (kgm3) (Wm1k1) C (Jkg1k1) thermal expansion ( C)

Steel 206.8 0.28 7850 39 520 13e-6

temperature–displacement coupling analysis. The

matrix expression of the temperature–displacement
(a)
coupling equation adopted by ABAQUS software is26
    
Kuu Ku
u Ru
¼ ð3Þ
Ku K
 R

where
u and
 are the respective corrections to the

incremental displacement and temperature, Kuu, Kuy,
Kyu, and Kyy are the stiffness submatrix; Ru and Ry are
the mechanical residual vector and thermal residual (b)
vector, respectively.
In the rough contact model, because there are
many asperities between the contact surfaces, the
actual contact area A1 and the nominal contact area
A0 need to be introduced. The nominal contact area
refers to the contact area obtained by the geometric
shape of the relative friction surface, and the actual
contact area is the area obtained after considering the
gap, so the heat generation rate q of the frictional
contact surface can be obtained as27 Figure 3. Loading history. (a) The normal load is constant. (b)
  Normal cyclic load.
A1
q ¼ P0  ð4Þ
A0
and boundary conditions information of the
where q is the amount of frictional heat generation per finite element model.
unit area (W/m2), that is, the heat flux density,  is the 2. The INP file is solved to obtain the coordinates of
friction coefficient, and P0 is the contact pressure (Pa). each node, contact pressure, shear stress, and slip
The flow chart of temperature rise simulation of distance, as well as temperature rise in the contact
the fretting contact surface is shown in Figure 4. area.
The specific steps are as follows 3. At the end of the incremental step, the extracted
data are processed.
1. Modeling the finite element model in ABAQUS to 4. The number of fretting cycles is calculated to
generate the INP file. The file in this format pre- determine whether the desired number of cycles
serves all the nodes, units, material parameters, has been reached.
Li et al. 143

5. If the result of step (4) is no, then repeat the above

steps. Otherwise, the fretting simulation calcula- Number of cycles N=1
tion is completed.

Model the FE model in ABAQUS

Under the condition of dry friction, it can be to generate INP files
assumed that all frictional work dissipated in the fret-
ting contact area is transferred to the contact object in Solve INP files to get contact
the form of heat.28 Since the area affected by the heat information
source in the fretting contact is small, it can be con-
sidered that the heat transferred to two objects in con- N=N+1
tact is similar. Meanwhile, the generation of friction The temperature rise response is
heat will cause the rise of the surface temperature of obtained by using the matrix
the friction pair, which will quickly diffuse from the expression of the temperature-
displacement coupling equation
surface to the inner layer, thus forming an unstable
temperature field (under cyclic loading, the tempera-
ture rise of the contact surface exhibits an oscillating
trend with time, and the growth trend of the tempera- Desired number of No
ture rise amplitude is unstable) in the friction cycles reached?
contact area.
Yes
Simulation results End

Influence of roughness on temperature rise under

cyclic loading Figure 4. Simulation flow chart of temperature rise of fret-
ting contact surface. FE: finite element.
Normal load P in sine form is applied to the model,
and its loading process is shown in Figure 3(b). The
actual slip distance of the model is 0.8 mm, and the
model is in a completely slip state. The temperature
rise distribution of the contact surface of the rough
model under cyclic load is studied. For dry friction,
the relative movement of the contact surface is often
accompanied by intense heat, which is difficult to be
transferred from the friction surface timely and effect-
ively. The resulting accumulation of heat on the fric-
tion surface causes the temperature of the contact
area to rise. The temperature rise distribution of the
contact surface under the smooth contact model and
the rough contact model are discussed separately
when the normal external load is fixed.
The temperature rise distribution curve of the
rough contact model and the smooth contact model
is shown in Figure 5. It can be seen that the tempera-
ture rise of the contact surface of the rough contact
Figure 5. Surface temperature rise distribution under differ-
model is higher than that of the smooth contact
ent roughness (normal load P ¼ 20 MPa, displacement load
model. Furthermore, the distribution of the tempera- S ¼ 50 mm).
ture field of the rough contact model is extremely
uneven, and the local temperature rise peak appears.
The possible reason is that the normal load is assumed the stage of adhesion dominance, and there is a fric-
by the individual asperity in the rough surface con- tion stage of ‘‘interface adhesion is torn,’’ leading to
tact, and the contact pressure and shear traction of the occurrence of the highest flash point. These char-
the rough contact model are more discrete and higher acteristics lead to different temperature rise distribu-
than that of the smooth contact model and are dis- tions of the rough contact model and smooth contact
crete, as shown in Figures 6 and 7. The actual contact models. In rough contact model, the actual contact is
area in the rough contact model is much smaller than the mutual contact between the asperities. The part of
that of the smooth contact model. The heat generated the heat generated by friction is transferred to the
by the sliding friction is released on the smaller con- friction pair, and the other part is transferred to the
tact area. At the same time, the contact area is still in external environment through the gaps between
144
Figure 6. Contact pressure distribution under different
roughness.
Figure 7. Shear friction distribution under different surface
roughness.
the surfaces. However, the smooth contact model has
a uniform contact area. The heat generated by the
friction is less transmitted to the external environ-
ment, and most of it is transmitted to the friction
pair and the non-contact area. Therefore, at a dis-
tance from the contact area, the difference between
the temperature rise amplitude of the smooth contact
model and the temperature rise amplitude of the
rough contact model is small.
Based on equation (1), the surface profile curves of
different fractal scale parameter (G) and fractal
dimensions (D) were gained. A two-dimensional con-
tact models with different roughness are obtained by
importing into ABAQUS the surface profile curves,
which were simulated and analyzed. The surface tem-
perature rise distribution results with different fractal
parameters were obtained, as shown in Figure 8. It
can be seen from Figure 8(a) that the surface tempera-
ture of the rough contact model increases with the
increase of contact surface roughness. The mechanical
Proc IMechE Part J: J Engineering Tribology 235(1)
Figure 8. Temperature rise distribution of contact surface
under different fractal parameters. (a) Surface temperature rise
distribution under different roughness (G variation). (b) Surface
temperature rise distribution under different roughness (D
variation).
deformation plays a leading role, making the friction
resistance increase with the increase of the surface
roughness. In the case of fretting contact, only a few
asperities are in contact, meaning a small normal load
and tangential load can generate a high contact pres-
sure and relative slip distance. According to the prin-
ciple of frictional heat generation, the instantaneous
heat generated during the fretting contact accumu-
lates on the small contact area to generate hot spots,
and there is an interaction between the hot spots,
causing the instantaneous temperature of the contact
surface to rise. When the tiny contact area separates,
the accumulated heat will spread to the surrounding
area, leading to the rise of the temperature of the non-
contact area.
As the fractal dimension increases, the surface
peaks and valleys become smaller and the surface pro-
file becomes smoother. It can be seen from Figure 8(b)
that the surface temperature rise of the contact model
decreases with the decreases of roughness and tends to
the temperature rise distribution of the smooth
Li et al. 145

(a)
10

Temperature/ K
6

2 L=0 mm
L=2 mm
L=5 mm
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
time/s

Figure 9. Surface temperature rise distribution under differ- (b) 6

ent normal load forms (Ra ¼ 0.2 mm).
5
contact model, but exceeds that of the smooth contact
4

Temperature/ K
model. That is, with the increase of fractal dimension,
the distribution of temperature rise decreases and the
temperature rise away from the contact area gradually 3

approaches a constant value.

In the rough contact model, when the amplitude of
normal load and tangential displacement are con-
stant, the influences of normal cyclic load and
normal constant load on the temperature rise distri-
bution of the rough contact model are studied as
shown in Figure 9. It can be seen from the figure
that the temperature rise distribution under normal
cyclic load is much smaller than that normal constant
load, and the difference value of temperature rise
amplitude between the two loading forms is small fur-
ther from contact area. This is because the effective
value of the applied normal cyclic load is less than the
maximum value of normal constant load. The fric-
tional heat generation rate is small, leading to a
decrease in the temperature rise of the contact surface.
In addition, a large amount of heat is generated by
friction at the beginning of fretting, and the tempera-
ture difference between the contact area and the non-
contact area results in heat transference. As the
friction continues, the heat transference decreases
with the rise of temperature of the area far away
from the contact area Consequently, the temperature
rise amplitude difference value between the two forms
of load is large within the contact area and small
within the area far from the contact area.
Figure 10 shows the temperature rise process of the
first 20 fretting cycles of different surface contact
nodes under two types of normal loads in the
smooth contact model. It can be seen that the tem-
perature of the contact node oscillate and gradually
increases with time. The farther away from the con-
tact center (x ¼ 0.3 mm), the smaller the temperature
change range and the temperature rise. From Figure
10(a) and (b), a significant difference in the tempera-
ture rise process under the two normal load forms is
2
1 L=0 mm
L=2 mm
L=5 mm
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
time/s
Figure 10. Temperature rise distribution of the first 20 cycles
of different contact nodes. (a) Temperature rise distribution
process of different nodes under normal cyclic load. (b)
Temperature rise distribution process of different nodes under
normal constant load.
observed. The oscillation amplitude changes of the
temperature rise process under cyclic load are incon-
sistent, while the oscillation amplitude changes under
constant load are basically consistent, which is
because the temperature of the node continues to
rise as the number of fretting cycles increases.
Meanwhile, for the cylindrical specimen reciprocating
motion during the fretting process, when a pair of
contact points undergo friction movement, the con-
tact point instantaneous heat generation results exces-
sive heat impossible to transfer in time, which
accumulates in the contact area and causes the tem-
perature to increase sharply. The accumulated heat is
transferred to other areas when the nodes are out of
contact, causing a decrease in node temperature rise.
More importantly, due to the applied normal cyclic
load during the movement, the relative slip distance
and the amplitude of temperature rise oscillation are
different. With the increase of temperature, the heat
generated is gradually dissipated, and the heat flux
density and temperature gradient get smaller.
146
18
Constant pressure
16 Variable pressure
14
Temperature/ K
12
10
4
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
depth/mm
Figure 11. Temperature rise distribution in x ¼ 0.3 mm depth
direction.
Figure 11 shows the temperature rise distribution
along the depth direction (i.e., away from the contact
surface) at x ¼ 0.3 mm under two normal load modus.
It can be observed from the figure that the variation
rule of the temperature rise amplitude under the two
normal load forms is the same in the depth direction.
The temperature rise amplitude decreases with the
increase of depth, which is in accordance with the
basic rule of heat transfer. The rate of change of tem-
perature rise is proportional to the distance between
the contact centers, which is because the instantan-
eous friction will generate more heat due to the
faster relative motion rate of the node closer to the
contact center. Furthermore, owing to the hysteresis
of heat transfer, the generated heat cannot be trans-
mitted to the friction pair and the external environ-
ment in time, resulting in a large rate of change in
temperature.
Influence of external load on temperature rise
distribution
Friction energy generated from the contact surfaces
during fretting usually is dissipated as heat. The con-
tact surface temperature will increase in a short time,
which will affect the contact characteristics of mater-
ials. In order to further explore the surface tempera-
ture rise distribution rule of the fretting contact
model, several affecting parameters are investigated,
including the tangential displacement load, normal
load, and cycle number.
In the finite element model, the different tangential
displacement load amplitudes are applied to the
model under a constant normal load amplitude
(P ¼ 20 MPa). The temperature rise distribution
under different tangential displacement amplitudes is
shown in Figure 12. It is found that the temperature
rise amplitude increases with the increase of tangential
displacement amplitude. This is because the relative
Proc IMechE Part J: J Engineering Tribology 235(1)
0.6
Figure 12. Surface temperature rise distributions under dif-
ferent tangential displacement amplitudes.
slip distance of cylindrical specimen increases with the
increase of tangential displacement amplitude, which
leads to the increase of frictional heat generation rate
per unit area and the friction work. Therefore, the
temperature of the contact surface increases.
Meanwhile, as the contact point changes during the
fretting cycle, the heat is transferred to the non-con-
tact area, leading to the rise of the temperature of the
area away from the contact area.
With the tangential load amplitude of 0.05 mm and
actual slip distance of 0.8 mm, different normal cyclic
load amplitudes are applied to the model in a com-
pletely slip state. As illustrated in the Figure 13, the
temperature rise amplitude and contact width of
the contact surface increase with the increase of the
normal load amplitude. This is attributed to the
increase of cyclic effect of the model with the ampli-
tude of normal cyclic load. The corresponding cyclic
features become more significant, according to equa-
tion (4), we can see the contact pressure and the actual
contact area of the asperity increase, resulting in the
increase of friction heat generation rate and the rise
contact surface temperature. Simultaneously, the
shear traction, relative slip distance, and contact
width of the model all increase with the increasing
normal load, and the heat generated during fretting
contact is released in the contact area. Meanwhile, the
temperature rise increases with the increase of friction
heat source intensity.
Under the same conditions, the influence of cycle
number on temperature rise distribution of the rough
contact surface of the fretting contact model is stu-
died. The temperature rise distribution of the contact
surface is shown in Figure 14. From the figure, we can
find that the temperature rise of the contact surface
and the temperature rise peak of the maximum flash
point increase with the number of cycles. This is
because as the number of cycles per unit time
increases, the model’s fretting speed increases.
According to equation (4), it can be seen that the
Li et al.
Figure 13. Surface temperature rise distribution under dif-
ferent normal loads.
Figure 14. Surface temperature rise distribution under dif-
ferent cycles (normal load amplitude P ¼ 20 MPa, displacement
load S ¼ 50 mm).
frictional heat generation rate increases. At the same
time, since the surface roughness of the rough model
decreases with the increase of the number of cycles,
the decreasing trend of the roughness slows down and
the contact area of the asperity increases. Moreover,
because the asperity produces a high contact pressure,
the frictional heat generation rate is increased, result-
ing in an increase of the contact surface temperature.
Conclusions
According to the cylindrical/plane contact type, the
temperature rise distribution of the two-dimensional
cylindrical/plane contact model is simulated by the
friction-thermal structural coupling finite element
method. Considering the fractal parameters and
normal cyclic load, setting different displacement
amplitudes and constructing different surface
147
morphologies, the effects of normal cyclic loading
on the temperature rise distribution of the fretting
contact surface under different fractal parameters
are studied. The main conclusions are as follows.
1. Under the same normal load amplitude and tan-
gential displacement amplitude, contact surface
temperature rise increases with the increase of
the fractal scale parameter and the decrease of
the fractal dimension. The surface temperature
of the rough contact model rises above the
smooth model, while local temperature rise
peaks appear in the rough contact model.
2. For the same normal cyclic load amplitude, the
temperature rise amplitude of the contact surface
increases with the increase of the tangential dis-
placement amplitude. The relative slip distance
of the cylindrical specimen becomes larger, and
the friction heat generation rate increases, due
to the increase of the tangential load.
3. The temperature rise amplitude of the contact sur-
face increases with the increase of the normal
cyclic load amplitude when the tangential dis-
placement amplitude remains constant. This is
because with the increase of normal load, shear
traction, relative sliding distance, contact pressure,
and contact width of the model all increase, which
causes the increase of friction heat source
intensity.
4. With the increase of number of cycles, contact
area of the asperity increases, resulting in an
increase of the temperature rise amplitude of the
contact surface and the peak temperature rise of
the maximum flash point.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This work was supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.
51975449, 51305327) and the Shaanxi Provincial Natural
Science Foundation of China (Project No. 2018JM5066).
ORCID iD
Ling Li https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4723-2613
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