A Statistical Account of Asperity Heating in a Rough Surface Contact

When two rough surfaces are in sliding contact an asperity on a surface would experience intermittent temperature flashes as it comes in momentary contact with asperities on a second surface. The frequency of the flash temperatures, their strength and duration depend, in addition to the sliding speed, on the topology of the two surfaces. In this paper a model is developed for the work-heat relation with a consideration of the above-mentioned intermittent nature of contact. The work of friction on one asperity is derived in integral form and closed-form equations. The rate of generation of heat is found due to a single asperity. Using the statistical account of asperity friction heat generation, rate of heat generation between two rough surfaces is obtained both in statistical integral form and in the approximate closed form.