Thermal and thermomechanical effects in dry sliding

Whenever friction occurs in dry sliding of mechanical components, mechanical energy is transformed into heat through surface and volumetric processes in and around the real area of contact. This frictional heating, and the thermal and thermomechanical phenomena associated with it, can have a very important influence on the tribological behavior of the sliding components, especially at high sliding velocities. Significant developments in the study of these phenomena are reviewed in this paper. Among the topics reviewed are mechanisms of frictional heating and the distribution of heat during sliding friction, the measurement and analysis of surface and nearsurface temperatures resulting from frictional heating, thermal deformation around sliding contacts and the changes in contact geometry caused by thermal deformation and thermoelastic instability, and the thermomechanical stress distribution around the frictionally heated and thermally deformed contact spots. The paper concludes with a discussion of the influence of the thermal and thermomechanical contact phenomena on wear, thermocracking and other modes of failure of sliding mechanical components.