Contact interaction and wear of beam supports resting on a frictional substrate

The frictional contact response of a beam with attached spherical indenters and supported on a plane substrate is considered for periodically varying normal load. An oblique loading case then occurs as the structural load induces both normal and tangential forces on the contact zone. The cyclic tangential sliding and spin of indenter on the substrate are then accompanied by evolving contact zone related to load variation. Rigid-sliding and slip sliding friction models have been used to describe analytically cyclic contact response, load-deflection hysteretic relation, wear scar evolution and dissipated energy per cycle assuming linear-elastic material model. The analytical solution has been verified by experimental tests providing data on mechanical response, load deflection diagrams illustrating transient and steady states and wear scar evolution. The effect of wear debris adhesively bonded to the indenter was found to be essential for increasing friction and wear. The relation of wear volume to the dissipated energy is presented. The analysis is aimed to develop a new type of wear tester applicable to oblique loading cases.