Ready-to-use contact-temperature model for polymer/steel pin-on-disc contacts with some improved thermodynamic approaches

An accurate contact temperature prediction during tribological experiments is essential to understand the wear and friction mechanisms and consequently enabling material and contacts development. In this work, a ready-to-use model to predict the maximum contact temperature for a variety of different polymers and steels in polymer/steel pin-on-disc sliding contacts for a broad range of contact and geometrical conditions was developed. The work provides an important advancement in our understanding of the contact-temperature contributions in pin-on-disc experiments by employing several new modelling approaches. In particular, the model considers an energy balance for the whole tribological system of contacting bodies, and accounts for the dissipation of frictional heat by various dissipation modes: due to the convection, conduction and radiation. The results show that the contact temperature in polymer/steel contacts is largely governed by the steady-state heat accumulation of the steel disc, which contributes about 94 % to the final maximum contact temperature, while the flash temperature contributes only a minor 6 %. The ready-to-use model provides, within the validated experimental space, a very accurate contact-temperature prediction with an uncertainty of ±1 °C.