Computational modelling of wear – application to structured surfaces of elastoplastic tools

Sheet bulk metal forming processes are applied in order to produce tailored workpieces at high quality. Thereby, effort is made to optimise frictional and wear behaviour by designing the structures of the contact surfaces. Numerical process analysis can evoke a deeper under-standing of the functionality of such surface structures. In this contribution, a finite element framework for the simulation of wear and the determination of effective frictional behaviour of structured surfaces at finite deformations is proposed. The modelling of wear is realised by pre- and postprocessing of an underlying representative contact problem at the meso-scale. Thereby, elasto-plastic material behaviour is assumed. A number of simulations with different parameterisations of a sinusoidal contact surface are carried out in order to demonstrate the influence of surface topology, which additionally depends on the state of wear, on the effective frictional behaviour. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim). Copyright © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.