Detailed Contact Surface Evaluation Based on Electric Field Potentials

This paper presents a novel method for the evaluation of the contact between opposing faces of machine parts. In high speed machining, modal damping of the machine-tool-workpiece loop plays a key role in the stability of the process. Due to prior experiences, the majority of structural damping originates in dry friction. The presented method maps the contact patch among opposing faces based on measured electric field potentials, hence providing reliable fundamentals for friction models. A neural network was trained on a data set generated by a finite element software, and the numerically predicted contact patterns were validated by measurement results.