Knowledge of real contact between two surfaces has a significant impact on designing contacts and improving the mechanical properties and lifespan of products. The fact that the real contact area of two bodies is smaller than the actual-nominal contact area can lead to suboptimal product design. Real contact determines the surface topography, which is described by micron-scale and submicron-scale roughness or asperities. In the literature, several methods are known for determining the real contact area, based on statistical analysis of the population of asperities.
This Master's thesis focuses on the analysis of the ontology of individual asperities, including their formation, growth, and merging with neighbouring asperities, as well as the analysis of the contact area of each asperity during normal mechanical loading. We have developed a method for the automatic processing of a series of sequential microscopic images of the sample's surface, which were recorded in real-time during the sample loading. The essence of the method lies in the image filtering, identification of asperities on the image, including the analysis of merging, and estimation of the contact area. Unlike statistical methods, the developed method enables the identification and monitoring of the deformation of individual asperities based on experimental measurements. We believe that the individual analysis of asperities opens up new possibilities for the study and provides new insights into the formation of real contact surfaces during loading.
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