On estimations of maximum and average interfacial temperature rise in sliding elliptical contacts

► Accuracy of Blok's hypothesis applied to sliding elliptical contacts is demonstrated. ► Accuracy of Tian and Kennedy's relations to predict the maximum and the average interface temperature for sliding circular contacts is assessed. ► Tian and Kennedy's relations are extended to include the effects of elliptical contact geometry. ► These simple formulae are at least 91% accurate for elliptical ratios between 0.4 and 5.0.