Metallic friction materials currently used in industry may adversely impact the environment. Substitutions for metals in friction materials, on the other hand, can introduce operational safety issues and other unforeseeable problems such as thermal-mechanical instabilities. In this work, a molecular dynamics model has been developed for investigating the effects of material composition, density, and surface asperities on the tribological properties of inorganic 3C-SiC under various contact conditions at the atomic level. Predictions on the following results have been made: (1) elastic modulus, (2) tensile strength, (3) thermal conductivity, and (4) friction coefficient. The research findings can help improve the design of metal-free friction materials against thermal-mechanical failures. Parametric studies were performed by varying a number of conditions including (1) ambient temperature, (2) sliding speed, (3) crystal orientation, (4) asperity size, (5) degree of asperity intersection, (6) types of loading, and (7) surface contact. Plastic deformation and material transfer were successfully modeled between two sliding pairs. Some of the computational results were validated against existing experimental data found in the literature. The evaluation of wear rate was also incorporated. The model can easily be extended to deal with other nonmetallic friction composites.
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Introducing a level-set based shape and topology optimization method for the wear of composite materials with geometric constraints
The wear of materials continues to be a limiting factor in the lifetime and performance of mechanical systems with sliding surfaces. As the demand for low wear materials grows so does the need for models and methods to systematically optimize tribological systems. Elastic foundation models offer a simplified framework to study the wear of multimaterial composites subject to abrasive sliding. Previously, the evolving wear profile has been shown to converge to a steady-state that is characterized by a time-independent elliptic equation. In this article, the steady-state formulation is generalized and integrated with shape optimization to improve the wear performance of bi-material composites. Both macroscopic structures and periodic material microstructures are considered. Several common tribological objectives for systems undergoing wear are identified and mathematically formalized with shape derivatives. These include (i) achieving a planar wear surface from multimaterial composites and (ii) minimizing the run-in volume of material lost before steady-state wear is achieved. A level-set based topology optimization algorithm that incorporates a novel constraint on the level-set function is presented. In particular, a new scheme is developed to update material interfaces; the scheme (i) conveniently enforces volume constraints at each iteration, (ii) controls the complexity of design features using perimeter penalization, and (iii) nucleates holes or inclusions with the topological gradient. The broad applicability of the proposed formulation for problems beyond wear is discussed, especially for problems where convenient control of the complexity of geometric features is desired.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1538125
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10018354
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization
- ISSN:
- 1615-147X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-016-1512-4
