Design curves for temperature rise in sliding elliptical contacts

The issue of thermal management of two components sliding against each other plays an important role in the proper functioning of the machine components. Jaeger, using his and Blokʹs hypotheses, presented the curves to compute the average and the maximum temperature rise in square and band shaped interfaces. It is often observed that designers refer to those curves even in scenarios when the contact geometry is different. In many cases, a more accurate temperature distribution is needed and using a constant heat partition to evaluate the temperature rise at the interface can lead to over-design or under-design of the components. In this study the authors apply a recently developed methodology of obtaining the temperature distribution at the interface of two sliding semi-infinite bodies by partitioning the heat between them in such a way that the temperature at every point in the interface is same for both the bodies. Elliptical contacts with a semi-ellipsoidal heat distribution are considered. In order to aid designers, curve fit equations are presented to calculate maximum temperature and average temperature rise in non-dimensional form over a wide range of Peclet numbers, thermal conductivity ratios and ellipticity ratios.