The flow behavior of the SnSbCu alloy is studied experimentally by the compression tests in the range of the strain rates from 0.0001 to 0.1 s⁻¹ and temperature from 293 to 413 K. Based on the experimental data, three constitutive models including the Johnson–Cook (J–C), modified Zerilli–Armstrong (Z–A), and Arrhenius-type (A-type) models are compared to find out an optimum model to describe the flow behavior of the SnSbCu alloy. The results show that the J–C model could predict the flow behavior of the SnSbCu alloy accurately only at some specific strain rates and temperature near the reference values. The modified Z–A and A-type constitutive models can give better fitting results than the J–C model. While, at high strains, the predictive values of the modified Z–A model have larger errors than those at low strains, which means this model has limitations at high strains. By comparison, the A-type model could predict the experimental results accurately at the whole strain range, which indicates that it is a more suitable choice to describe the flow behavior of the SnSbCu alloy in the focused range of strain rates and temperatures. The work is beneficial to solve the tribological problem of the bearing of the marine engine by integrating the accurate constitutive model into the corresponding numerical model.

The contact between a rigid flat and a coated asperity is studied using the finite element method. The substrate is assumed as the power-law hardening elastic–plastic material. The effect of the hardening exponent of the substrate (n) on the contact behaviors including contact load, area, coating thickness variation and stress in the coating, is investigated. It shows larger hardening exponent results in larger contact loads and larger maximum stresses in the coating at a given interference, and leads to smaller contact area at a specific contact load. The coating thickness becomes smaller monotonically as the interference increases for larger hardening exponents, while it recovers gradually after reaching the minimum value for the smaller n cases. This work will give some universal guidance to improve the contact performance for coatings by adjusting the hardening exponent of the substrate and by optimizing the coatings parameters.

Sliding between asperities occurs inevitably in the friction pair, which affects the efficiency and reliability in both lubricated and non-lubricated conditions. In this work, the contact parameters in the coated asperity sliding process are studied, and the universal expressions of the average contact force and the friction coefficient are obtained. The effect of the interference between asperities, the material and geometrical parameters including the Young’s modulus ratio and yield strength ratio of the coating and substrate, and the hardening exponent and thickness of the coating on the average contact forces and friction coefficient is considered. It shows both normal and tangential contact forces increase with the increasing interference, increasing Young’s modulus ratio, decreasing yield strength ratio, and decreasing coating thickness; while the trend is different for the effect of the hardening exponent of the coating. The normal force increases and the tangential force decreases as the hardening exponent increases. Based on this, the influence of these parameters on the effective friction coefficient is obtained further. It reveals that the friction coefficient increases as the interference and Young’s modulus ratio enlarge and decreases as the yield strength ratio, the coating’s hardening exponent, and thickness increase. The universal expressions for the contact force and friction coefficient in the sliding process are obtained. This work might give some useful results to help choose the optimum coatings for specific substrates to reduce friction in cases where the asperity contact exists, especially in the focused field of the journal bearing in the marine engine under poor lubrication conditions.