Numerical prediction of fretting contact durability using energy wear approach: Optimisation of finite-element model

One of the major issues for industrials is to predict how the components are damaged in service and to establish when they need to be replaced or repaired to avoid a catastrophic failure. Fretting wear is a surface degradation process induced by small-amplitude oscillatory movements that is invariably observed in industrial contacts. To focus on this issue, a global energy wear law was experimentally determined for a given contact and locally implemented in a finite element modelling. This model gives efficient prediction of contact durability and geometrical changes of either one or two surfaces in contact. Optimization of computation time was dealt with and a criterion of the maximum wear depth per computation step is proposed. In addition, this numerical investigation allows us to validate and quantify the apparition of the stabilized wear regime.