Heat flux evaluation in high temperature ring-on-ring contacts

• Published in: Wear Vol. 330-331; pp. 320 - 326
• Main Authors: Tavasci, A., Arizzi, F., Dini, D., Rizzi, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.05.2015
• Subjects: Approximation; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Inverse; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Tribometers
• ISSN: 0043-1648
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wear.2014.12.026

A comprehensive methodology to investigate heat flux in a ring-on-ring tribometer is presented. Thermal fluxes under high contact pressures and temperature differences were evaluated through an experimental campaign and by a numerical procedure of inverse analysis applied to surface temperature measurements. An approximation of a two-dimensional time-dependent analytical solution for the temperature distribution was first developed and subsequently adapted to mimic the specific testing configuration characteristics; the problem was finally simplified to enable further inverse analysis. Experiments were performed using an innovative high temperature ring-on-ring tribometer. The evaluated contact heat-transfer rates were reported as a function of normal load and temperature difference between the discs under steady-state conditions; the results reported here show that, in the present test configuration, the temperature difference has stronger influence than the applied load in terms of heat transfer induced by contact.