When two metallic bodies are in contact, although the apparent pressure may be small, the local pressures, due to asperities entering in contact, are sufficient to cause plastic deformation of the materials. The consequences are irreversible deformations, residual stresses and hardening of the materials, which modifies the overall contact response. Therefore, pure elastic computations become irrelevant for the simulation of contact of metallic bodies.
We are investigating the effect of plasticity on the real contact area, the contact cluster distribution and the distribution of local pressures, using the Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method. However, the former breaks down for large surfaces, as the computational cost increases dramatically. We are therefore developing cutting edge numerical methods to solve the elasto-plastic contact problems in a high-performance environment.
