A Study on 3D Contact of Rough Surfaces Considering Finite Elastoplasticity

In this work the non-penetration condition and the interface models for contact taking into account the surface microstructure are investigated in detail. It is done using a homogenization procedure presented by Bandeira et al. [2–5] in order to obtain by numerical simulation the interface behavior for the normal and tangential contact pressures based on statistical surface models. The contact surfaces of both bodies are rough. This paper can be regarded as a complementary study to that presented by Bandeira et al. [5]. Here the plasticity of the asperities is taken into account by assuming a constitutive equation based on an associated von Mises yield function formulated in principal axes, as shown by Pimenta [22]. The plastic zones in the microstructure are shown to study in detail the contact interface. Numerical examples are selected in order to show the ability of the algorithm to represent interface law for rough surfaces considering elastoplastic behavior of the asperities.

Key words: Contact mechanics, contact surface, interface constitutive equation, elastoplasticity.