Numerical and finite element contact temperature analysis of real composite-steel surfaces in sliding contact

Numerical techniques have been developed and used to evaluate the contact temperature distribution between real composite-steel surfaces in sliding contact. To characterise the contact temperature problem of composite materials new definitions for composite Peclet numbers have been introduced. In case of `slow sliding' problems a stationary numerical technique was applied, whereas for `intermediate and fast sliding' problems transient finite element (FE) solutions were preferred. At first sliding contacts of a single steel asperity over polyetheretherketone (PEEK) or carbon fibre (CF)/PEEK composite surfaces were modelled in order to study the contact temperature development on a microscopic level. It was followed by contact temperature results for real composite-steel sliding surfaces; the latter helped to provide information about the actual stress conditions, which are necessary to model the wear process of this pair of materials in future works.