MULTISCALE CONTACT HOMOGENIZATION OF GRANULAR INTERFACES

Summary (download poster)

Dry granular third bodies are frequently encountered at multiple scales of contact interfaces in contexts that range from mechanical problems of tire traction and semiconductor manufacturing to biological problems of wear debris generation and mobility in implant joints. The ability to assess the variations in the macroscale dynamical response of the contacting bodies due to the presence of the microscale granular heterogeneities requires methodologies with which the frictional behavior of the heterogeneous contact interface can be modeled. However, the exceedingly large number of the third bodies prohibits a direct resolution of the individual grains in a macroscale analysis. Accordingly, a contact homogenization methodology is proposed where the overall frictional behavior can be quantified based on a micromechanical testing procedure that lends itself naturally to a multiscale analysis environment, thereby allowing the replacement of the original interface with an effectively equivalent but a homogeneous one. The investigations that are envisaged within this proposal will provide further insight into the modeling and simulation of third body effects in a fully nonlinear three-dimensional virtual setting that accounts for inelastic phenomena. Laboratory experimentation will additionally be pursued to establish the predictive capabilities of the methodology. Overall, this research will assist in the efforts towards the establishment of robust computational multiscale contact homogenization techniques that are needed for the analysis of similar microheterogeneous interfaces.

Support for this project is provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Grant No. WR 19/41.

Publications

[1] I. Temizer, P. Wriggers (2008): A Multiscale Contact Homogenization Technique for the Modeling of Third Bodies in the Contact Interface. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 198:377-396 ; abstract

[2] I. Temizer, P. Wriggers (2009): Inelastic analysis of granular interfaces via computational contact homogenization. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engrg. [submitted]