Numerical Prediction of the Surface Temperature of Polyoxymethylene with Various Sliding Geometry

Effect of sliding geometry on the surface temperature of polyoxymethylene(POM) for wear testing was studied numerically. Exact estimation of the temperature on sliding surface of plastic is important for the prediction of wear amount. However, direct measurement of the surface temperature is very difficult during sliding. Therefore, the numerical simulation must be a powerful tool for it. From this point of view, the authors previously developed the numerical simulation code for predicting surface temperature of hollow circular cylinder made of POM without free surface. It was found that the numerical results well explained the experimental results with ON-OFF operation. In the present study, the effect of sliding geometry with various contact areas on the surface temperature was numerically investigated. Numerical model consists of a hollow cylindrical POM and a half cylindrical or plate one. The governing equation of model is three-dimensional heat conduction equation, and the frictional heat and heat transfer by forced convection are associated with the boundary condition. These equations were discretized by the finite volume method and solved by the TDMA scheme. Numerical simulation results were compared with experimental results, and a good agreement between both results was found.