Analysis of thermoviscoelastic frictionless contact of layered bodies

In the design of a contact system it is desirable to reduce the peak value of the contact pressure. This is in turn improving the tribological behavior of the contact system. Layering the contacting bodies by viscoelastic materials can achieve this goal. This is due to the capability of such materials to store and dissipate energy for either stress relaxation or creep condition. The response of such layering contact systems is greatly influenced by the material characteristics of the viscoelastic layers. This paper presents a computational model capable of analyzing quasistatic nonconformal viscoelastic frictionless contact problems of layered bodies with thermal loads. In addition to the capability of detecting the contact configuration, effects of the material characteristics of viscoelastic layers upon this contact configuration are also investigated. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.