Computational study on the effect of contact geometry on fretting behaviour

Journal articleA key challenge in the design of engineering couplings and contacting components relates to the development of an understanding of the comparative performance of contrasting contact geometries for a given application, including loading, applied deformations and geometrical space envelope. Although fretting is observed in many mechanical assemblies such as keyway-shaft couplings, shrink-fitted couplings, one specific example which has motivated the present work is the pressure armour layer of a marine flexible riser, where the groove and nub experience fretting contact damage. A Hertzian cylinder-on-flat contact geometry is commonly assumed for this groove-nub contact due to the ready availability of the contact (normal and tangential) analytical solutions for this geometry. In reality the contact geometry is closer to a rounded punch-on-flat. The present work adopts a finite element methodology to compare the significance of the Hertzian assumption to that of a rounded punch-on-flat, in terms of fretting behaviour.peer-reviewe