Simulation Study of Thermal–Mechanical Coupling Fretting Wear of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Fretting wear phenomenon has a non-negligible impact on the reliability of the contact parts of mechanical power systems. The impact of temperature increases in actual working conditions is taken into consideration in order to increase the accuracy of fretting wear prediction. Temperature-dependent wear coefficients were added to the energy dissipation wear model, and the UMESHMOTION subroutine was created. A temperature-displacement-coupled finite element model of fretting wear is established based on a cylinder/plane fretting test of Ti-6Al-4V alloy materials. The model takes into account the interaction between temperature, stress, and wear. The effects of the plastic deformation of materials, temperature, number of cycles, fretting velocity, and variable normal load on wear and temperature rise are explored. The results show that the wear amount is small when the temperature rises, and the plastic deformation of materials is not considered. The wear profile is no longer a smooth Hertzian shape when the plastic deformation of materials is considered. The amount of wear increases with the fretting speed and the number of cycles. Meanwhile, the temperature of the contact area and the surface near the contact area increases with the increase in fretting speed. Peak temperature rise of the contact surface increases with the number of cycles, and its horizontal position moves with the cylinder specimen. Furthermore, the wear profile is less smooth under the variable normal load, but the two variable normal loads in the same phase have similar wear profiles and temperature rise distributions. The theoretical resources provided by the research work can be used to design control strategies and optimize mechanical power systems.