Contact of rough surfaces: A simple model for elasticity, conductivity and cross-property connections

Two rough plates with multiple contacts of diverse microgeometries are pressed against one another. Two types of contacts can be distinguished: Hertzian ones and “welded” areas. We find that for circular contacts (1) the two types produce the same effect on the incremental stiffness of the interface and on the effective conductivity across it if their contact areas are the same; (2) for both contact types, the compliance and the conductivity are controlled by the same microstructural parameter, ξ=∑Sk where Sk is the kth contact area; (3) the explicit cross-property connection is established that gives the (incremental) stiffness in terms of the conductivity; it holds for an arbitrary mixture of Hertzian and welded contacts and does not require any knowledge of their microgeometries. Whereas the two types of contacts produce the same effect on the incremental stiffness, the Hertzian contacts cause non-linearities (the incremental stiffness increases with loading). The non-linearity is controlled by the microstructural parameter that is sensitive to contrasts of curvatures of the contacting parts. Model predictions are generally in good agreement with experimental data on conductivities of rough metal surfaces and stiffnesses of rough rock surfaces.