Application of finite element simulations for data reduction of experimental friction tests on rubber–metal contacts

This paper presents a finite element based methodology for obtaining pressure dependent friction laws from experimental tribometer tests on rubber–metal contacts. Tribometer tests are simulated for analyzing the area of contact and obtaining an approximation to the contact pressure distribution in the test. The proposed methodology will be applied to the evaluation of experimental results from tribometer tests run in flat on flat and flat on cylinder configurations, for which flat and cylindrical countermaterials have been produced with very similar surface morphologies and, therefore, theoretically the same pressure-dependent friction law.