Tailorable and repeatable normal contact stiffness via micropatterned interfaces

Perris, J., Xu, Y. , Kartal, M. E., Gadegaard, N. and Mulvihill, D. M. (2021) Tailorable and repeatable normal contact stiffness via micropatterned interfaces. Tribology Letters, 69, 106. (doi: 10.1007/s11249-021-01473-3)

Abstract

An approach to producing interfaces with tailored and repeatable normal contact stiffness using micropatterned surfaces is developed. A finite element model is first used to design square wave interfaces having a range of stiffnesses, and these are fabricated in polycarbonate via a microfabrication process. Results demonstrate that the contact stiffnesses of the fabricated interfaces are both tailorable and repeatable. The approach can be broadened to other materials and is useful for applications requiring specified interface stiffness. Finally, even with these deterministic interfaces, we show that low levels of roughness on the surface features are sufficient to produce a load-dependent contact stiffness at lower loads. Therefore, tailorability is mostly applicable above this limit where total contact stiffness converges to a load-independent value.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Perris, Mr Jack and Mulvihill, Dr Daniel and Xu, Dr Yang and Gadegaard, Professor Nikolaj
• Authors: Perris, J., Xu, Y., Kartal, M. E., Gadegaard, N., and Mulvihill, D. M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Tribology Letters
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1023-8883
• ISSN (Online): 1573-2711
• Published Online: 17 July 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Tribology Letters 69:106
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
302858		Fundamental Mechanical Behaviour of Nano and Micro Structured Interfaces	Daniel Mulvihill	Leverhulme Trust (LEVERHUL)	RPG-2017-353	ENG - Systems Power & Energy