Contact width and compliance between cylinders and rough plates

The contact mechanism between a cylinder and a rough plate is theoretically analysed for mixed, elastic and plastic contacts of asperities. The analysis leads to the result that the contact pressure, the contact width and the compliance between the cylinder and plate differ considerably from those calculated from the Hertz equation and the Lundberg equation when the surface roughness in contact is greater and the normal load is lower. It is also found that the difference between the calculated contact width and the compliance based on mixed asperity contacts and those based on elastic or plastic asperity contacts is small. To confirm the analysed results, the contact width between the cylinder and the rough steel or rough copper plate was measured by means of evaporated carbon and lamp black film coatings on the rough surfaces. The compliance between the surfaces was also measured using differential transformers. Little difference was found between the analysed results and the experimental results.