Work

Towards a Universal Scaling for the Elastic Contact Between Anisotropic and Non-gaussian Surfaces

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Contact between elastic rough surfaces is one of the fundamental problems in tribology. We study with a Boundary Element Method the influence of anisotropy of roughness on the real contact area and on load-separation for both a classical gaussian height distribution and a weibull one, in the common case of power law PSD. We find that anisotropy affects contact area and load-separation similarly for gaussian or non-gaussian surfaces, and therefore the effect can be captured by a single parameter which we extract from Persson’s theory. We further use the results to extend BAM theory of long-range adhesion to gaussian and non-gaussian (weibull) surfaces both isotropic or anisotropic. For the real contact area, results for weibull surfaces are known in the literature.

Source: Tribology Letters

DOI: 10.1007/s11249-025-01976-3

Authors: Francesc Pérez-Ràfols, Michele Ciavarella

Institutions: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Polytechnic University of Bari

Language: English

Topic: Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions

Subfield: Mechanics of Materials

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,990

Funders: Dipartimenti di Eccellenza, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación