Heat transfer across a solid–solid interface obtained by machining in a lathe

In this paper the heat transfer across the interface between two cylinders in axial contact for which the surfaces are obtained by machining in a lathe was studied. The macro-contact generated by this process has a spiral shape. The governing equations being difficult to solve for this geometric configuration, the spiral was simulated by multiple concentric circular annular contacts. Thus, the problem is two-dimensional and hence easier to solve. An exact explicit analytical solution was developed in order to calculate the temperature distribution and the thermal contact resistance image between the two cylinders. The image is expressed as a function of the ratio of real contact area to the apparent one, and the number of contacts. A simple correlation is also proposed to calculate the image with high accuracy.