Optimal shapes of contact interfaces due to sliding wear in the steady relative motion

The transient wear process at contact frictional interface of two elastic bodies in relative steady motion induces evolution of shape of the interface. A steady wear state may be reached with uniform wear rate and fixed contact surface shape. In this paper, the optimal contact shape is studied by formulating several classes of shape optimization problems, namely minimization of generalized wear volume rate, friction dissipation power and wear dissipation rate occurring in two bodies. The wear rule was assumed as a nonlinear dependence of wear rate on friction traction and relative sliding velocity, similar to the Archard rule. The wear parameters of two bodies may be different. It was demonstrated that different optimal contact shapes are generated depending on objective functional and wear parameters. When the uniform wear rate is generated at contact sliding surfaces, the steady state is reached. It was shown that in the steady state the wear parameters of two bodies cannot be independent of each other. The solution of nonlinear programming problem was provided by the iterative numerical procedure. It was assumed that the relative sliding velocity between contacting bodies results from translation and rotation of two bodies. In general, both regular and singular regimes of wear rate and pressure distribution may occur. The illustrative examples of drum brake, translating punch and rotating annular punch (disc brake) provide the distribution of contact pressure and wear rate for regular and singular cases associated with the optimality conditions. It is shown that minimization of the generalized wear dissipation rate provides solutions assuring existence of steady wear states. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.