Effect of material viscosity on the response of thermo-elastic multi-layred contact systems

Many applications in mechanical design involve elastic or viscoelastic bodies coming into contact under the action of applied loads. Unbonded contact of deformable bodies is generally a nonlinear problem. In simple contact problems, such nonlinearity is caused by the changing of boundary conditions throughout the contact interface. In the design process, one of the main targets is to reduce the peak value of the contact stress. Such requirement can be attained by layering the contacting bodies with viscoelastic layers. When one of the contacting bodies is made of a viscoelastic material, the problem becomes more complex. This complexity arises from the nature of viscoelastic materials that having the capability to store and dissipate energy. In addition, properties of viscoelastic materials exhibit both time and temperature-dependency. Consequently, introduction of thermal effects makes the contact problem much more difficult.