Three-dimensional modeling of elasto-plastic sinusoidal contact under time dependent deformation due to stress relaxation

In the current work, the effect of stress relaxation in contact between sinusoidal surfaces is studied using FE simulations. There are a few works on the elastic and elasto-plastic contact between sinusoidal surfaces, but the transient effects such as creep and stress relaxation are not considered in these works. Stress relaxation causes significant change in the contact area and pressure between the contacting surfaces. The Garofalo formula is used to model the transient behavior of stress relaxation. The results for the contact area and contact pressure are presented and discussed. Empirical equations are developed to predict contact area and pressure by fitting to the FEM results. The equations are dependent on the initial surface separation, aspect ratio, and the Garofalo constants. •Stress relaxation effect in sinusoidal asperity contacts is modeled using FEM.•Results are obtained for the contact area and contact pressure as a function of time.•A parametric study is performed to study the effect of different properties.•The results showed that the stress relaxation consists of two phases.•Empirical equations are presented for the contact area and contact pressure.