Investigation of the contact performance of machined surface morphology

Abstract Engineering practices have indicated that surface textures and topography greatly affect the mechanical performance of contact interfaces. The effect of machined surface morphologies on the contact performance results, including average surface gap, contact area ratio, and the volume of plastically deformed material, is investigated. Depending on the machined parameters, the studied surfaces are generated using computer simulation. The elasto-plastic contact of rough surfaces is analyzed by means of semi-analytical method (SAM) and minimization of complementary energy. Results indicate that with increasing the interval of texture, average surface gap remains invariant while contact area ratio and the volume of plastically deformed material decreases.