Experimental Preliminary Research Regarding Normally and Tangentially Loaded Contacts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to determine the contact area for a contact between a steel sphere and a sapphire disk loaded normally and tangentially, using laser profilometry. For this, was used an experimental device capable of loading the contact in both ways, normally and tangentially. The values of the applied forces were known through a strain gauge apparatus Vishay P3. The contact area is obtained by measuring the surface reflectivity and the experimental results are compared to those obtained with Hertz theory.