Review of elastic and plastic contact conductance models - Comparison with experiment

More than 450 thermal contact conductance data points obtained from isotropic conforming rough surfaces for five different materials; nickel, stainless steel, two zirconium alloys, and aluminum have been compared with the existing elastic and plastic models. For the first time data have been reduced to a dimensionless form assuming both elastic as well as plastic deformation. Normally, data were compared with either the elastic model or the plastic model assuming a type of deformation a priori. The relative merits of different models and the surface factors influencing the mode of deformation are still not clear. Hence, the aim of the present work was to compare most of the models available in the literature with themselves as well as with isotropic data. Comparison showed that generally smoother surfaces deform elastically, and rougher ones plastically. However, there are some data sets that compare well with both the elastic as well as the plastic models.