| Friction is a very complex phenomenon that occurs between bodies in contact. Friction and its effects have been studied by researchers for hundreds of years. Most mechanical systems look to reduce friction because it hampers system performance. However, friction is desired in certain important applications such as turbine blades, built-up structures and transportation systems. Dry friction is used in such cases as a damping or isolation technique. The inexpensive, environmentally robust nature of friction make it a popular choice as a passive damping technique. However, due to its inherently complex nature, friction modeling presents considerable challenges to designers. This dissertation presents a Lagrange multiplier-based approach called the Microslip Superelement (MSE) approach to model partial slip at the interface. The formulation has been implemented in the ANSYS framework and studies sliding and rolling contact problems. A particular application to turbine blade clamping is presented and comparisons are made with experimental benchmark data. |
