Simulation of Rough, Elastic Contacts

Frictionless rough contact problems have been studied in great detail by J. A. Greenwood and his co-workers. The only thing that actually seems missing is a simulated figure of the real contact between two rough bodies. Such a figure will be provided. Frictional rough elastic contact, on the other hand, seems to be terra incognita, and we intend to explore it. We will use two-dimensional rough bodies, because then we can simulate many asperities, and also because three-dimensional does not differ very much from two-dimensional in frictional contact, while finally the figures resulting from two-dimensional are clearer and more transparent as well as more realistic. On the other hand, two-dimensional calculations yield only qualitative results; for quantitative results one needs three-dimensional computations.