Steady-state frictional heat generation on a periodic sliding contact

We investigate the motion of a periodic system of rigid, isolated, parabolic dies along the surface of a half-space. The action of friction forces results in heat generation in the contact region. We assume that the surfaces of the dies are thermally insulated and the half-space is a heat conductor. We reduce the problem under consideration to a set of two integral equations for the contact temperature and pressure. We solve these equations numerically and investigate the influence of thermal deformation on the distributions of temperature and pressure and on the dimensions of the contact region. © 2002 Plenum Publishing Corporation.