The Effect of Isotropic One-Process and Two-Process Surface Textures on the Contact of Flat Surfaces

The contact of random modeled one- and two-process textures with smooth, flat surfaces is discussed in this paper. An elastic-plastic contact model was applied, assuming a distributed radius of summits. A one-process surface was characterized by the standard deviations of height and the correlation length; however, it also had a two-process texture by the standard deviations of the plateau and valley structures, the material ratio at the transition point, and the correlation lengths of the plateau and valley parts. It was found that the contact characteristics depended on the height and spatial properties of the surface texture. The plateau part governs the contact characteristics of two-process surfaces, while the effect of the valley surface portion is smaller. The plastic deformation leads to a smaller effect of the surface texture on the contact characteristics.