Modeling of Sliding Contact of a System of Asperities and Coated Viscoelastic Half-Space

Problem of sliding of a periodic system of asperities along the boundary of a viscoelastic half-space with a coating is under consideration. The coating is modeled by a layer with flexural rigidity. The solution is based on reducing the problem to the contact of a limited system of asperities with the action of others being replaced by distributed pressure; the accuracy of such approach is evaluated. The numerical-analytical solution is based on double integral Fourier transforms, the boundary element method and the iterative procedure. The influence of the shape of asperities, sliding velocity, and coating thickness on the deformation component of the friction force and on the effect of mutual influence of asperities has been analyzed. To identify the effect of mutual influence, a comparison of the results (distribution of contact pressure and friction force) obtained for multiple contacts and for the isolated asperity has been made. For comparison, the results of solving a similar problem for viscoelastic half-space without a coating have been obtained and analyzed.