Homogenization for contact problems with periodically rough surfaces

We consider the contact of two elastic bodies with rough surfaces at the interface. The size of the micro-peaks and -valleys is very small compared with the macrosize of the bodies’ domains. This makes the direct application of the FEM for the calculation of the contact problem prohibitively costly. A method is developed that allows deriving a macrocontact condition on the interface. The method involves the two-scale asymptotic homogenization procedure that takes into account the microgeometry of the interface layer and the stiffnesses of materials of both domains. The macrocontact condition can then be used in a FEM model for the contact problem on the macrolevel. The averaged contact stiffness obtained allows the replacement of the interface layer in the macromodel by the macrocontact condition.