Numerical Study of the Effect of Tribofilm Kinetics and Its Hardness on the Roughness Evolution of the Substrate in Boundary Lubrication Regime

A tribochemical modeling framework that considers the growth of a tribofilm on the contacting surfaces has been used in this work. The model couples a fast contact mechanics model with the thermodynamics of interfaces and captures the growth of the tribofilm on the asperities. The model was shown to be able to capture the dynamics of a tribosystem and the evolution of surface topography. The model considers the effect of plastic deformation and...