Analysis of thermo-mechanical wear problems for reciprocal punch sliding

The relative sliding motion of two elastic bodies in contact induces wear process and contact shape evolution. In the case of a punch sliding on a substrate the transient process tends to a steady state for which the fixed contact stress and strain distribution develops in the contact zone. This state usually corresponds to a minimum of the wear dissipation power. The optimality conditions of the wear dissipation functional provide the contact stress distribution and the wear rate compatible with the rigid body punch motion. The present paper is aimed to extend the previous analyses [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5] of steady state conditions to cases of periodic sliding of punch, assuming cyclic steady state conditions for both mechanical and thermal fields.