Effect of Material Characteristics on Viscoelastic Frictionless Contact Configuration

The tribological status of contact systems is affected by the contact configuration; contact stress distribution throughout the contact interface. Viscoelastic materials have the capability of storing and dissipating energy. When the contacting bodies are made of viscoelastic material, viscous and elastic properties of the material have a vital effect upon the contact pressure distribution and the extent of the contact interface. This paper illustrates the effect of viscoelastic material parameters on the contact configuration. Two material parameters are considered; the ratio of the delayed elasticity to the instantaneous elasticity and the material relaxation time. The results are obtained by using a time-dependent nonlinear computational model capable of analyzing quasistatic viscoelastic frictionless contact problems. This computational model adopts the Wiechert model to simulate the linear behavior of viscoelastic materials and the modified incremental convex programming method to accommodate the contact problem of viscoelastic bodies.