Experimental and Finite Element Analysis of Plastic Domain Evolution of Wavy Surfaces During Contact

The processing method has an effect on the morphology and yield strength of the wavy surface. In this paper, experiments and finite element methods are used to analyze the contact behavior of asperities on a wavy surface. And the effects of the distribution, height, surface noise, and yield strength of the asperities on the wavy surface on the plastic evolution of the asperities are discussed. For the wavy surface of the aluminum alloy machined by the three processing methods, the plastic evolution of the surface asperities is directly observed in the experiment. The results show that when the surface roughness is lower, the plastic growth of various asperities on the surface is more uniform. We consider that the topography of the surface consists of periodic topography and surface noise. The plastic deformations of wavy surfaces with different morphologies are analyzed by the finite element method. The results show that the higher the frequency of the asperity distribution, the smaller the plastic deformation under the same load. Furthermore, the plastic deformation of asperities increases with height. In addition, the mean value of the noise has a limited effect on the plastic deformation of the wavy surface. However, when the noise variance gradually increases, the plastic area of the asperities shows a slow upward trend.