Modeling Thermal Contact Resistance: A Scale Analysis Approach

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (6) ◽  
pp. 896-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bahrami ◽  
J. R. Culham ◽  
M. M. Yovanovich

A compact analytical model is developed for predicting thermal contact resistance (TCR) of nonconforming rough contacts of bare solids in a vacuum. Instead of using probability relationships to model the size and number of microcontacts of Gaussian surfaces, a novel approach is taken by employing the “scale analysis method.” It is demonstrated that the geometry of heat sources on a half-space for microcontacts is justifiable for an applicable range of contact pressure. It is shown that the surface curvature and contact pressure distribution have no effect on the effective microthermal resistance. The present model allows TCR to be predicted over the entire range of nonconforming rough contacts from conforming rough to smooth Hertzian contacts. A new nondimensional parameter, i.e., ratio of the macro- over microthermal resistances, is introduced as a criterion to identify three regions of TCR. The present model is compared to collected TCR data for SS304 and showed excellent agreement. Additionally, more than 880 experimental data points, collected by many researchers, are summarized and compared to the present model, and relatively good agreement is observed. The data cover a wide range of materials, mechanical and thermophysical properties, micro- and macrocontact geometries, and similar and dissimilar metal contacts.

Author(s):  
M. Bahrami ◽  
J. R. Culham ◽  
M. M. Yovanovich

A new analytical model is developed for predicting thermal contact resistance (TCR) of non-conforming rough contacts of bare solids in a vacuum. Instead of using probability relationships to model the size and number of microcontacts of Gaussian surfaces, a novel approach by employing the “scale analysis methods” is taken. It is shown that the mean size of the microcontacts is proportional to the surface roughness and inversely proportional to the surface asperity slope. A general relationship for determining TCR is derived by superposition of the macro and the effective micro thermal resistances. The present model allows TCR to be predicted over the entire range of non-conforming rough contacts from conforming rough to smooth Hertzian contacts. It is demonstrated that the geometry of heat sources on a half-space for microcontacts is justifiable and that effective micro thermal resistance is not a function of surface curvature. A comparison of the present model with 604 experimental data points, collected by many researchers during the last forty years, shows good agreement for the entire range of TCR. The data covers a wide range of materials, mechanical and thermophysical properties, micro and macro contact geometries, and similar and dissimilar metal contacts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Toebben ◽  
Xavier E. R. de Graaf ◽  
Piotr Luczynski ◽  
Manfred Wirsum ◽  
Wolfgang F. D. Mohr ◽  
...  

Recent studies have shown that in a prewarming, respectively, warm-keeping operation of a steam turbine, the blades and vanes transport most of the heat to the thick-walled casing and rotor. Thereby, a thermal bottle-neck arises at the connection between the blade root and the rotor. The thermal contact resistance (TCR) at these interfaces affects the temperature distribution and thus the thermal stresses in the rotor. The present paper introduces an experimental setup, which is designed to quantify the TCR at the blade-rotor-connection of a steam turbine. An uncertainty analysis is presented, which proves that the average measurement uncertainties are less than one percent. The experiments especially focus on the investigation of the contact pressure, which is a function of the rotational speed. Therefore, the results of several steady-state measurements under atmospheric and evacuated atmosphere using a high temperature-resistant chromium-molybdenum steel are presented. For the evaluation of the TCR, a numerical model of the specimen is developed in addition to a simplified 1D approach. The results show a significantly increasing TCR with decreasing contact pressure, respectively, rotational speed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-272
Author(s):  
Rahmouna Cheriet ◽  
Bourassia Bensaad ◽  
Fatiha Bouhadjela ◽  
Soufyane Belhenini ◽  
Mohammed Belharizi

This study presents a mixed numerical / semi-empirical approach that primarily aimed to estimate the thermal contact resistance between two solids. The results obtained by this mixed method were compared and validated by experimental measurements of this resistance. Three semi-empirical models were used, namely the Mikic model, the Yovanovich model and the Antonetti model. The three-dimensional finite element numerical simulation was used to estimate the contact pressure between the two solids. Then this contact pressure obtained numerically was compared to the hardness of the solids in contact. The findings indicated that the numerically obtained contact pressures were close to hardness. Therefore, the hardness, which is usually used as an input variable in semi-empirical models, was replaced by the contact pressure. The thermal contact resistance obtained by this mixed method was then compared with the experimental one. The outcomes obtained from this comparison turned out to be very conclusive and can therefore be used to reinforce our approach which can actually be viewed as a reliable and low-cost method for estimating the thermal contact resistance between solids in contact.


Author(s):  
M Tirovic ◽  
G.P Voller

The paper studies interface pressure distributions and thermal contact resistance (TCR) of a large automotive bolted joint. The research was initiated by the need to determine accurately conductive heat dissipation from a commercial vehicle disc brake. The main area of interest was the conduction between the grey cast iron disc and the spheroidal graphite cast iron wheel carrier. The bolt clamp forces and interface pressure distributions were investigated theoretically and experimentally. Finite-element analyses and pressure-sensitive paper experiments provided very similar interface pressure distributions. TCR change with interface pressure was studied experimentally, by conducting numerous temperature measurements. The derived linear relationship is of generic nature, enabling the calculation of the TCR for a variety of engineering bolted joints, over a wide range of interface pressures.


2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 977-984
Author(s):  
Jun Feng Peng ◽  
Jun Hong ◽  
Yan Zhuang

Thermal contact resistance plays an important role in many domains, such as microelectronics and nuclear reactors. This paper proposes a more comprehensive model for the prediction of constriction resistance of rough contact between nominally flat surfaces in vacuum. Firstly, a 3D geometrical asperity contact model is proposed based on the analysis of the profile of actual engineering surface. In this model, the contact is not simplified as a rough surface contacting with a perfectly smooth surface, but described as two rough surfaces. Oblique contact is considered and the effects of several parameters such as the shape of the asperity, the depth of interference, and the radial distance between the centerlines of the contacting asperities are investigated. Some mathematical derivations for constriction resistance are performed, and a series of numerical simulations are also carried out, covering a wide range of values of these parameters in practice applications. A comprehensive correlation for constriction resistance as a function of these parameters is finally obtained by nonlinear curve fitting, and it is validated through some comparisons and it can be used to predict more accurately the thermal contact resistance between rough surfaces.


1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Attia ◽  
L. Kops

The analysis of the process of heat transfer across the joints in machine tool structures reveals their non-linear thermoelastic behavior. Nonlinearity basically results from two distinctive causes. First, it is the material nonlinearity due to the fact, that the stiffness of the surface asperities takes a nonlinear, load-dependent form. The second cause is the nonlinearity resulting from the thermoelastic behavior of contacting elements, which experience a closed-loop interaction between the thermal field and the thermal deformation of structural elements in contact. This interaction affects the distribution of the contact pressure along the joint and causes a consequent redistribution of the thermal contact resistance. As a result, the final pattern of deformation depends on the final contact pressure distribution which is unknown in advance. The nonlinear thermoelastic behavior of the joint is inherent to the process of heat transfer across the interface. By considering this behavior of the joint, characterized by the time-dependent distribution of the thermal contact resistance along the interface, thermal deformation of the whole structure can be treated with thermally interacting structural elements taken into account. This was a missing link in predicting the thermal deformation. As a solution, a consecutive-iteration technique is proposed, which, with introduction of contact elements representing equivalent properties of the joint, allows us to portray the thermal deformation of the structure under transient and steady state conditions.


Author(s):  
Toshio Tomimura ◽  
Yasushi Koito ◽  
Taewan Do ◽  
Masaru Ishizuka ◽  
Tomoyuki Hatakeyama

The thermal contact resistance (TCR) is the crucial issue in the field of heat removal from systems like electronic equipment, satellite thermal control systems, and so on. To cope with the problem, a lot of studies have been done mainly for flat rough surfaces. However, as pointed out so far, there are still wide discrepancies among measured and predicted TCRs, even for similar materials. To investigate the key factors for the abovementioned discrepancies, a fundamental analysis was conducted in our previous study [1] using a simple contact surface model, which was composed of the unit cell model proposed by Tachibana [2] and Sanokawa [3]. Furthermore, by introducing a 2-D microscopic surface model, which consists of random numbers and Abbott’s bearing area curve, the effects of surface waviness and roughness on the temperature fields near the contact interface have been investigated microscopically [4]. In this study, based on a 1-D wavy surface model, a fundamental study has been conducted to predict TCR and the thermal contact conductance (TCC), which is a reciprocal of TCR, between wavy surfaces with the thermal interface material (TIM) under a relatively low mean nominal contact pressure of 0.1–1.0 MPa. From comparison between the calculated and measured results, it has been shown that, in spite of a simple 1-D analysis, the present model predicts the temperature drop at the contact interface, which is obtained as the product of TCR and the heat rate flowing through TIM, within some 10 to 60% error for a TIM with the thermal conductivity of 2.3 W/(m·K) and the initial thickness of 0.5, 1 and 2 mm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1 Part A) ◽  
pp. 313-324
Author(s):  
Yuwei Liu ◽  
Yameng Ji ◽  
Fuhao Ye ◽  
Weizheng Zhang ◽  
Shujun Zhou

Thermal contact resistance between interfaces is an important parameter in the analysis of temperature distribution for structural components. Thermal contact resistance between heat resistant steel 2Cr12NiMoWV/aluminum alloy BH137 interfaces and 2Cr12NiMoWV/titanium alloy ?-TiAl interfaces were experimentally investigated in the present paper. The effects of contact pressure and interface tem-perature were detailed. The temperature of contacting surfaces was from 80- 250?, and the contact pressure ranged from 2-17 MPa. All experiments were conducted in ambient atmosphere. Results showed that thermal contact resistance decreases with an increment of interface temperature or contact pressure. Under the same conditions of contact pressure and interface temperature, thermal contact resistance between 2Cr12NiMoWV and BH137 interfaces is lower than that between 2Cr12NiMoWV and ?-TiAl interfaces. The temperature dependence of thermal conductivity and mechanical properties was analyzed to explain the results. Furthermore, with the piston and piston pin as the research object, steady state temperature fields were simulated in cases of considering thermal contact resistance and without considering thermal contact resistance, respectively. The results showed that the maximum temperature of the piston pin will be lower when thermal contact resistance is considered.


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