A boundary element thermal model of sliding contact: application to head/disk interfaces

The temperatures produced by friction between a head and disk in sliding contact are investigated using a boundary-element method. The method solves for the transient and spatial variation of the division of frictional heat between the stationary and moving regions, and the resulting temperature distribution throughout both regions. A unique aspect is the use of a moving Green´s function as opposed to a stationary, diffusion Green´s function used in standard boundary-element methods. This moving Green´s function is particularly well suited to this class of problems since it incorporates the convective effect of the moving region in a convenient and accurate manner. The method handles any arbitrary sliding velocity without numerical oscillations encountered at high Peclet numbers using other methods. The method is applied to a simplified model of a head-disk interface. The results for asperity contacts between semi-infinite regions show the influence of arterial thermal properties, sliding velocity or Peclet number, interaction between contact patches, and area of contact on the division of frictional heat between the stationary head and moving disk as well as the interface temperature