A new elliptical microcontact model considering elastoplastic deformation

A new elliptical microcontact model considering elastoplastic deformation is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the existing elastoplastic microcontact model. A new low-order interpolation function is used to describe the relationship between the normal deformation of asperity and the mean contact pressure in the elastoplastic deformation stage, and a smooth, continuous, monotonic change curve of the mean contact pressure is obtained. Then, the contact of rough surfaces is studied based on the new elastoplastic elliptical microcontact model and the height distribution of asperity. The calculated results are compared with those obtained from the existing rough surface contact models and the comparisons show that: (1) the change curve for the average contact pressure in the new model is smooth, continuous, and monotonic; (2) the calculation results of the new model are consistent with the numerical results based on the finite element method; (3) the new model is helpful to study the rough surface contact analysis of the elliptical micro-convex body.