Limitations of the Coulomb friction assumption in fretting fatigue analysis

A significant factor in the fretting process, both experimentally and analytically, is the Coulomb friction. Most analyses of fretting fatigue consider a constant coefficient of friction (CCOF) in modeling a contact geometry. This work reevaluates the constant assumption of the Coulomb friction coefficient, and develops a Coulomb friction model based on a non-classical model allowing the coefficient of friction (COF) to be a function of local contact pressure and local slip magnitude. Here, the Coulomb COF varies locally along the contact surface. Results of computations using this model are applied to fretting fatigue experiments utilizing several specific contact geometries, which have nominally identical fatigue lives experimentally. The analysis shows that certain combinations of parameters in the variable coefficient of friction model can produce nominally identical stress states. Such results cannot be obtained using a CCOF.