Thermoelastic instability of functionally graded materials with interaction of frictional heat and contact resistance

Both of the frictional heat and thermal contact resistance have a grave responsibility for the localized high temperature (hot spots) at the contact region, which is known as one of the most dangerous appearances in the brakes systems. In this paper, we study the thermoelastic instability (TEI) of a functionally graded material (FGM) half-plane sliding against a homogeneous half-plane at the in-plane direction. The interaction of the frictional heat and thermal contact resistance is taken into account in the TEI analysis. The material properties of the FGM half-plane are supposed to follow the exponential function along the thickness direction. The coupled TEI problem of FGMs is solved by using the perturbation method. The frictionally excited TEI of FGMs is also considered by neglecting the effect of the thermal contact resistance. The results show that the thermal contact resistance, sliding speed and gradient index have significant influence on the TEI. It is found that the variation of the gradient index of FGMs can increase the critical sliding speed and critical heat flux, and therefore improve the TEI of the sliding system. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.