A numerical-analytical method is proposed for calculating the contact pressures and internal stresses arising in the coating and substrate during indentation by a smooth indenter of arbitrary...

Frost-resistant rubbers retain their highly elastic properties over a wide temperature range. They are used in various friction units (e.g., seals), but their high friction coefficient and low wear resistance lead to the need for frequent replacement. In this paper, we propose applying thin (several hundred microns) UHMWPE coatings to formed rubber rings. The application technology depends on the required coating thickness. Friction tests of the coatings and pure UHMWPE were performed using the ball-on-disk (unidirectional sliding) scheme for various loads and velocities. In the experiments, the friction coefficients and temperatures near the contact area were determined. Friction tracks were studied using microscopy methods. The sliding contact of the ball and the two-layer material was modeled to obtain the dependences of the deformation component of friction on the sliding velocity for coatings of different thicknesses. UHMWPE is sensitive to frictional heating, so the thermal problem of determining the temperature in the contact area was also solved. It is shown that the minimum friction coefficient occurs for coatings with a thickness of 600 μm. At the same time, in the case of the 300 μm coating, the surface of the friction track is practically no different from the initial one. Thus, the studied combination of polymers provides antifrictional properties and wear resistance to the surface layer while maintaining the damping properties of rubber.

The axisymmetric contact problem of sliding of two solid parabolic indenters on a viscoelastic half-space with constant velocity is considered. Shear stresses modeling the adhesive component of the friction force act in the contact area. The model of the foundation material is described by an integral operator with an exponential kernel characterized by one relaxation time. The problem is solved by the boundary element method. The dependences of the contact characteristics on the sliding velocity, the normal load, and the distance between the centers of the indenters is analyzed. The results can be used to study the effect of the roughness elements modeled by two indenters on the contact characteristics and the deformation component of the friction force.