The Effect of Surface Contact on Contact Characteristics Using ANSYS Workbench Simulation

Abstract

The Hertzian contact theory provides deep insights into the pressure distribution between contacting surfaces, enabling a more detailed analysis of material response during contact. This study aims to analyze the influence of surface contact angles, lateral radius, and load on contact characteristics using a finite element method-based simulation in Ansys Workbench. The material used is ST 60 carbon steel with variations in contact angle (0°, 18°, 36°, 54°, 72°, and 90°), load (2 N to 8 N), and lateral radius (13 mm to 24 mm). The parameters analyzed include total deformation, contact area, and Von Mises stress. The simulation results show that increasing the lateral radius reduces the contact area, maximum pressure, and total deformation, while increasing the load increases maximum pressure and total deformation with a linearly increasing trend in contact area. The influence of the contact angle shows that deformation increases with the angle, while the contact area and maximum pressure peak at an angle of 72°, with values of 6.926×10⁻⁵ mm² and 2.30 MPa, respectively.