Selection Of Analytical Computational Model Of Contact Pressure

This paper presents a comparison of two contact pressure calculation methods between two real rough surfaces: a calculation based on FEM (Finite Element Method) using commercial software tool ANSYS and a calculation based on FDM (Finite Difference Method) using analytical functions implemented in programing tool MATLAB. This comparison, lately, leads to the selection of the most appropriate analytical contact model useful for time-effective and precise contact pressure determination. Surface data for numerical simulations are obtained by optical profilometry. For the case of the modelling process of 3D FEM models of rough surfaces the description of their building is included in this article. Furthermore, this paper discusses all challenges connected with the convergence of such simulations and essential post-processing of FEM simulation results, together with their comparison, along the results obtained by user-written MATLAB functions