DESIGN OF THIN CURVED SENSOR TO MEASURE CONTACT SLIP IN FRETTING EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

This paper proposes a new thin curved sensor/strip to measure the relative slip between pad and specimen under fretting conditions. Since the relative contact displacement is a vital parameter to categorize the fretting process, the measurement of contact displacement between pad and specimen is necessary. The spring steel has chosen to fabricate the thin curved strip because of its high yield strength and the ability to return to its initial position even with notable deflection. Before the fabrication, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was performed on the thin curved sensor. The strip consists of different shapes (rectangular, circular, and elliptical) of slots, and the number of slots in each strip is varied from 2 to 6. The Strain Energy Approach (SEA) has been used to calculate the displacement for the curved strip, and it was compared, verified, and validated with its FEA and Experimental results. Four configurations were chosen from FEA study of thin curved strips with slots to measure micro-level displacement between pad and specimen under fretting experiments. The present study reveals that the increasing number and size of holes in the curved strip increases displacement and von-Mises stress values, which ensure higher flexibility to the strip. The reduction in the area and minimum thickness of the curved strip could be the reason for the decrease in the stiffness of the curved strip. This study explores using a new novel and straightforward instrument/sensor to capture the micro-level relative displacement between the pad and specimen under fretting conditions. © 2022 ANAME Publication. All rights reserved.