Separated steady state solutions for two thermoelastic half-planes in contact with out-of-plane sliding

When two materials are placed in contact along an interface, thermoelastic effects can separate the surfaces and create “hot spots” when there is sufficient frictional heating fVp generated at the interface, even if the two surfaces are nominally flat. Additionally, heat can flow because the bodies are generally at different temperatures, and this is an independent cause of separation, generally when heat flows into the less distortive material. These two effects have been considered separately, and here we consider the case with interaction of the two effects, showing possible non-existence, multiplicity and instability of solutions. Approximate Hertzian solutions for the separated contact regime are very limited, particularly for the frictional heating case. Hence, a new efficient full numerical solution is developed, and compared with direct FEM results, the latter permitting also the assessment of stability in the transient regime. Connection to previous results for simple rod models is made. The case of heat flow into the more distortive material is discussed.