Multiscale analysis of moving clusters of microcontacts

0017-9310/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.04.034 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 2123 5812; fax E-mail address: [email protected] (Y.H. Jang). Greenwood’s approximation for the thermal resistance of a cluster of microcontacts is used recursively to estimate the thermal resistance due to a fractal array of circular contact areas motivated by Archard’s contact model. The results are then extended to the case of sliding contacts, using a technique due to Burton. It is found that the total resistance converges on a limit when arbitrarily large numbers of fractal scales are included, but the fine scale features in the contact area have a disproportionate effect at high Peclet number and hence reduce the proportion of frictional heating passing into the moving body. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.