Closed-form solutions for contact pressure distribution generated by 2D rough profiles

This study investigates the influence of surface roughness on contact mechanics, addressing the limitations of existing models that often rely on idealized and symmetric asperity shapes. We introduce a generalized representation of asperity geometries, including non-symmetric profiles, to better capture the diversity of surface characteristics encountered in real-world applications. By applying this parametric asperity model, we perform numerical simulations to analyze the impact of different parameters on contact behavior, effectively identifying various interaction regimes. The analysis is based on the assumption of elastic contact and focuses on two-dimensional roughness profiles characterized by surfaces that remain invariant along the axis orthogonal to the rolling direction. This approach effectively simulates geometries that display sufficient invariance along this axis, thereby representing realistic asperities in the form of streaks. Our theoretical framework quantifies the resulting analytical pressure distribution as a function of both geometric and mechanical parameters of the generalized asperities. By accommodating non-symmetric asperity geometries, our approach enhances model accuracy while significantly reducing computational time and resource requirements compared to traditional numerical methods.