Contact between rough surfaces

A major challenge in contact mechanics stems from the multi-scale nature of phenomena occurring at the contact. Natural surfaces are made of a vast number of asperities over a wide range of length scales, which induces a much smaller contact area than the observable one.

Rough surfaces are usually modeled as a Gaussian random field with a self-affine fractal-like structure. From a given rough surface, we can compute the solution of the contact problem using discretization methods such as Finite Element Method (FEM) or Boundary Element Method (BEM). In order to agglomerate sufficient statistical data, a lot of simulations have to be realized. Our research aims at developing new numerical techniques by casting the contact problem into a fully statistical framework, which will provide means to analyze statistical properties at lower costs. We collaborate with CSQI laboratory in EPFL to propose new efficient methods for the statistical analysis of contact quantities.

Surface Sliding and Third-Body Particle

Lubricant Hydrostatic Pressure

Cluster Analysis in Normal Contact

Elasto-plastic contact

Adhesive normal contact

Recent publications