A Contact Mechanics Model for Rough Surfaces Based on a New Fractal Characterization Method

There are mainly two kinds of contact mechanics models for rough surfaces. One is based on the statistical characteristic parameters and depends on the measurement scale of rough surface topography. The other is based on the fractal parameters, which is independent of the measurement scale. However, most of the contact models for rough surfaces based on fractal theory use the size that is corresponding to the contact area of an asperity or the sample length as the base diameter of an asperity to describe the initial profile of asperities. As a result, the obtained deformation mechanism of asperities is not correct. To solve this problem, a new fractal characterization method for rough surfaces based on the fractal dimension D, fractal roughness G and the highest asperity height is proposed, and then a fractal contact model independent of the measurement scale is established. The contact mechanism of asperities and variation trends of the real contact area and contact stiffness are discussed. When the contact pressure of the rough surface is less than its yield strength, its normal contact. stiffness can be expressed as the first derivative of the contact pressure versus the normal compression, regardless of the deformation forms of asperities.