Effects of Shear and Wear on Instabilities Caused by Frictional Heating in a Seal-Like Configuration

Abstract
Frictionally heated sliding contact similar to that of a dry or boundary-lubricated seal is investigated, regarding an instability in contact pressure. Above a critical sliding speed, this phenomenon causes the nearly uniform initial distribution to become one with localized high pressure patches. The threshold of instability is shown to be strongly influenced by wear rate. Above a critical wear w* contact is stable irrespective of sliding speed. Two dimensionless groups Vc/Vc*, a dimensionless sliding speed, and w/w*, a dimensionless wear rate, are shown to control contact behavior under the conditions of the model investigated. The effects of normal displacements, at the interface, caused by frictional shear stress, were also investigated and found to be of minor importance.

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