Research on the flash temperature in single asperity contact

In order to estimate the flash temperature of sliding friction pair, the transient heat conduction between a single asperity contact on the rough sliding surfaces was investigated. Based on the assumption that there is only one asperity contact on each rough surface, the influences of sliding velocity, maximum interference, frictional coefficient, thermal-physical properties of the contacting materials on the flash temperature were analyzed. The results revealed that the flash temperature increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of contact time. The maximum value of flash temperature appeared at the moment when the contact time was about 82.5% of the total time, and it was 10% higher than that of Archard's model. In addition, the flash temperature was in proportion to such factors as the square root of the sliding speed, the 3/4 power of the maximum interference, frictional coefficient, and compound elastic modulus, and inversely proportional to the thermal conductivity, and the product of density and specific heat capacity. These results provided a theoretical foundation for further study on the friction and wear mechanism of sliding friction pairs.