Frictionally excited thermo-elastoplastic instability

A transient finite element simulation is used to solve the two-dimensional contact problem involving thermo-elastoplastic instability (TEPI) in frictional sliding system. The existence of plastic deformation below the critical speed for thermoelastic instability is independent of the size of initial perturbation. For the simulation of the first/second partial contact, the amount of initial perturbation affects only the time interval of the first partial contact and the second partial contact is reached earlier, regardless of the initial perturbation. In addition, it shows that the locations of hot spots after cooling are changed.