Prediction of fretting wear using boundary element method

The simulation method of the fretting wear prediction using boundary element method is developed. The contact pressure and the contact width which is the first step to predict fretting wear are obtained from contact analysis of a semi-infinite solid based on the use of influence functions and patch solutions. The geometrical updating is based on nodal wear depths computed using Archard’s equation for sliding wear. The prediction of fretting wear for two cases of contact problems is performed; one is two-dimensional cylinder on flat contact which is for the comparison with a previous model by finite element method; the other is three-dimensional spherical contact. It is observed that for two-dimensional cylindrical contact the boundary element method developed in this study reduced the calculation time by 1/48 compared to FE method. We also showed the use of developed simulation technique is efficient to predict the fretting wear for three-dimensional spherical contact.

Research Highlights►Simulation method for the fretting wear prediction based on BEM is developed. ►Calculation time of fretting wear by BEM reduced about 148 compared to FEM. ►The developed BEM is efficient to predict fretting wear for 3D contact problem.