Calculation of the Temperature Development in a Contact Heated in the Contact Surface, and Application to the Problem of the Temperature Rise in a Sliding Contact

Abstract

I. A circular area on a semi‐infinite body is assumed to be heated at a constant rate from the time t=0 on. The development of the temperature in this area and in its surroundings is calculated with certain simplifications. II. In a sliding contact the heat generated by friction is limited at every point to the time of contact. The temperature reached by the contact surface is calculated by aid of Part I and with assumptions about the size of the contact surface, which are based on earlier investigations of the author. Observations on the temperatures in bimetallic sliding contacts, indicating the contact temperature rise by means of a thermoelectric current, are compared with calculations partly according to the deduced theory partly according to an earlier published theory by Jaeger. A fairly good agreement is found with one exception.