International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Thermal contact conductance between rollers and bearing rings

Jialan Liu a, b, Chi Ma a, b, *, Shilong Wang a, b
a
College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: To predict the TCC between rollers and bearing rings, an integrated thermal contact conductance (TCC) model
Rough cylindrical surface between cylindrical surfaces was proposed. The surface topography was characterized by the Cantor set theory,
Cantor set theory and the structure function of the surface topography was used to identify the equivalent fractal dimension. Then
Fractal contact model
the fractal contact model was established, and an effective contact factor was constructed to modify the contact
Thermal contact conductance
Bearing ring
parameters by considering the contact between two cylindrical surfaces. Finally, the discrete and continuous
Roller models were established to predict the TCC between rollers and bearing rings. To verify the validity of the TCC
model, the experiments of TCCs were conducted and then the comparison between the measured and predicted
TCCs was performed. The results show that the maximum and average errors between the predicted TCC and the
measured data are 10.21% and 8.14%, respectively. Besides, the effects of the key factors on the TCC between
rollers and rings were discussed. The TCC increases with the contact pressure because the critical generation nc
increases with the contact load. Moreover, the smaller the fractal dimension, the rougher is the surfaces, and then
the smaller is the TCC. The TCC between rollers and bearing rings increases with the dimensionless contact area.
Besides, the TCC increases with the rotational speed for the fully run-in roller bearing, and the TCC of the dy­
namic lubricated roller bearing is much higher than that of the static lubricated roller bearing and that of the
static non-lubricated roller bearing.

1. Introduction
The contact conduction analysis is extremely vital because it plays an
important role in such fields as the electronic packaging [1], the thermal
management of battery packs [2], the thermal-structure analysis of
machine tools [3–8], the heat dissipation of spacecraft [9], the high
temperature superconductivity [10], etc. The normal heat flow is
disturbed because the contacting surfaces are not completely smooth.
Then the difficulty of heat flowing across the contact interface is
increased by the imperfect contact interface and finally the thermal
contact conductance (TCC), which is the reciprocal of the thermal
contact resistance (TCR), is generated. The contact conduction is
restricted by the TCR and then a significant temperature drop is induced
at the contact interface. The TCC between rollers and bearing rings is a
class of extremely important thermal boundary conditions for the
thermal-structure analysis of machine tools [3]. The above models
cannot be used to predict the TCC between rollers and rings because the
contact between rollers and bearings is the contact between cylindrical
surfaces. To the best knowledge of authors, the heat transfer mechanism
between two rough cylindrical surfaces has not been fully understood
although some related studies on the TCC of bearings have appeared. So
far, the TCC modeling method is especially scarce for the prediction of
the TCC of the roller/ring interface, and then it is extremely urgent to
propose a TCC prediction model by considering the effect of surface
form.
The experimental measurements of the TCC are straightforward and
can also provide the TCC. But most of current studies fail in the fast
access of the TCC of bearings [11,12]. Moreover, the measurement was
difficult to be conducted for each bearing because the test conditions are
demanding for actual bearings. The numerical method including the
FEA based on COMSOL is effective to get the TCC between two rough
planes without curvature [13]. But the surfaces of rollers and balls are
cylindrical surfaces. Moreover, the built-in TCC model of such numerical
simulation software, including the CMY model [13], is not suitable for
the case of the roller/balls interface because the contact between two
cylindrical surfaces changes the contact parameters, resulting in the
error in the modeling results. The inputs of the CMY model include the
contact pressure, the micro hardness, the surface roughness, and the
slope of the surface roughness. The surface roughness and the slope of

* Corresponding author. College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
E-mail addresses: ljluu@cqu.edu.cn (J. Liu), chima@cqu.edu.cn (C. Ma), slwang@cqu.edu.cn (S. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2019.106140
Received 10 May 2019; Received in revised form 11 October 2019; Accepted 11 October 2019
Available online 25 October 2019
1290-0729/© 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Nomenclature trun½x� truncation function

Rtc total contraction TCR
Asi non-contact area of each microprotrusion in the ith H micro hardness of softer material
generation Htc total contraction TCC
hi 1 height of the ði 1Þth generation groove upi critical plastic deformation
Agi non-contact area of each microprotrusion in the ith ui contact deformation of ith generation
generation unc plastic displacement in the normal direction
hi height of the ith generation groove hnc 1 height of the solid portion in ðnc 1Þth generation
th
Ag;s;i total non-contact area between each groove in the ith uc;nc 1 elastic deformation of ðnc 1Þ generation
generation uc;i elastic deformation of solid portions smaller than ðnc 1Þth
Ha;nc 1
th
TCC of ðnc 1Þ generations generation
Ai total non-contact area of ith generation δnc 1 actual height of the rectangular grooves
Ha;i TCC of ith generations Ha;nc 1 heat conduction TCC of ðnc 1Þth generation
Ar actual contact area Ha;i heat conduction TCC of portions in range of ith generations
gi gap width of grooves on two adjacent generations σ root mean square roughness of the equivalent surface
Aa Nominal contact area li 1 length of ði 1Þth generation groove
li length of ith generation groove zi height of the grooves in the ith generation
b radius of contact area zðxÞ rough profile height in the x-direction
l0 length of 0th generation groove γ the scale factor
c radius of heat flow channel τ increment in the x-direction
Ar ’ modified actual contact area Γ the Gamma function
fr proportional coefficient in width direction z1 ðxÞ denote the roughness height of roller surface
Ar ’* dimensionless modified actual contact area z2 ðxÞ roughness heights of ring surface
fz proportional coefficient in height direction Ar1 cross-section area of roller surface
F’ modified contact load Ar2 cross-section area of ring surface
F total contact load over contact interface u contact deformation
F’* dimensionless modified contact load u1 contact deformation of roller surface
Fie elastic contact load of contacting microprotrusions u2 contact deformation of ring surface
ks slope of structure function Fc critical contact load
Fip plastic contact load of contacting microprotrusions Ac critical contact area
bs intercept on the vertical axis of structure function lk length of the kth generation grooves
E* equivalent elastic modulus k kth generation microprotrusion
nc critical generation E1 elastic modulus of roller
Dp fractal dimension of 2D profile v1 Poisson’s ratio of roller
Ra;nc 1 TCR of ðnc 1Þth generation E2 elastic modulus of bearing ring
Ds fractal dimension of 3D surface v2 Poisson’s ratio of bearing ring
Ra;i TCR of ith generations R1 radius of roller
G characteristic parameter R2 radius of bearing ring
B width of the grooves
Rc;i Heat flux contraction from the solid portion of the ði 1Þth
F’ total contact load
generation to the contraction heat of the single solid
znc 1 initial height of the grooves in ðnc 1Þth generation
portion of the ith generation
hOR TCC of the roller/outer ring interface z’nc 1 increased height of the grooves in ðnc 1Þth generation
th when deformation happens
Rs;ðnc 1Þ TCR of a single solid portion of ðnc 1Þ generation
hOI TCC of the roller/inner ring interface uc;i deformation of the microprotrusion in ith generation

Rt;ðnc total TCR of the solid portions of the ðnc th

1Þ generation δnc 1 actual height of the rectangular groove in ðnc 1Þth
1Þ
generation
h0 height of the 0th generation groove
Rtc contraction TCR
Rt;0 total TCR
R0 the TCR of the contact area of the ideal
sðτÞ structure function
Re TCR of fully elastic deformation materials
Rbc total heat conduction TCR
ψ contact pressure
rc contraction TCR between a pair of contacting solid
xi length of the single rectangular groove in ith generation
portions
Hbc total heat conduction TCC

the surface roughness are two statistical parameters, and both of them
vary with the resolution of the measuring instrument [14]. Then it is not
unique for a specific rough surface [15], leading to the modeling inac­
curacy of the TCC. Then it is concluded the built-in model of such nu­
merical simulation software is not suitable to calculate the TCC of the
roller/bearing ring interface.
The root cause for the existence of TCCs is the incompletely smooth
surfaces. Moreover, the topography has a great influence on the TCC
because it directly determines the actual contact area. Then the char­
acterization of the surface topography is the basis for the construction of
the TCC model. The surfaces of the contacting bodies are rough enough
and the roughness is the macroscopic manifestation of the micro-
topography. When the micro-topography is accurately characterized,
the macroscopic roughness of surfaces is quantitatively described. The

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J. Liu et al.
characterizations of planar and trans-scale structures are two main
branches of the topography characterization of random rough surfaces.
The planar random rough surfaces include the Gaussian surfaces, non-
Gaussian surfaces, and self-affinity fractal surfaces, etc. The first-order
statistical parameters (the mean value, the roughness Ra, the kurtosis
Sk, and the slope Ku) and the second-order statistical parameters (the
autocorrelation function ACF, the height-height correlation function
H H, and the power spectral density PSD) are the characteristic pa­
rameters of the planar random rough surfaces. The theoretical and
simulation studies of planar random rough surfaces have been quite
adequate, and a variety of classical algorithms are developed, including
the spectral density method [16], the statistical method [17], the fast
Fourier transform (FFT) [18,19], the linear transformation matrix [20],
the Beta equation [21], the ARMA-Johnson conversion system [22], the
finite impulse response (FIR) [23], the sparse frequency domain matrix
[24], the 2D digital filter [25], and the Monte Carlo theory [26], etc.
However, the above methods cannot realize the unique and objective
characterization of surface topography because both the first-order and
second-order statistical parameters are sensitive to the sampling length
and the resolution of measuring instruments. Other studies investigated
the characterization method of engineering surfaces [27,28]. The
topography of rough surfaces has multiscale, self-similar, and fractal
features, which leads to the above sensitivity and dependence. It is
worth mentioning that the fractal geometry theory [29,30] is effective to
characterize the above features. The Cantor set theory [31,32] is a more
special method for constructing fractal structures and it is more suitable
for constructing rough surface structures with multiscale, self-similar,
and fractal characteristics.
In addition to the geometric analysis of the contacting surfaces, the
mechanical modeling plays an essential role for the construction of TCC
models because the deformation form of the contacting micro­
protrusions is determined by the mechanical modeling. When the load is
applied to the contacting bodies, the contacting microprotrusions
deform elastically and plastically, and then the contact load is generated
by the elastoplastic deformations of microprotrusions to undertake
external loads. The elastic, elastoplastic, and plastic contact theories are
used for mechanical modeling and analysis. The classical elastic models
include the G-W model [14], G-T model [33], W-A model [34], Hisakado
model [35], Bush model [36], and McCool model [37]. The above elastic
contact models are effective when the plasticity index is low, and then
they are invalid when the plastic deformation increases significantly.
The plastic contact models, including the A-F model [38], W-H model
[39], and P-W model [40], are also developed to compute the contact
parameters. The plastic contact models are suitable for the contact
problems with great plastic deformations. To bridge the above two
extreme modeling methods, the elastoplastic contact models, including
the CEB model [41], Liou-Lin model [42], and Kogut-Etsion model [43],
are then proposed. The above contact models are effective for the
calculation of the contact parameters. But the deformation form of the
contacting microprotrusions is not single. Therefore, it is necessary to
propose a fractal contact model to consider the transition from the
elastic deformation to plastic deformation. Moreover, the contact be­
tween the rollers and bearing rings is the contact between two cylin­
drical surfaces and then the results obtained by the above contact
models cannot be readily used for the TCC modeling of the roller/ring
interface because the surface considered in the above contact models is
the rough surface without curvatures. In conclusion, the ignorance of the
effect of the surface forms on the contact parameters leads to the inac­
curacy in the TCC between rollers and bearing rings.
Based on the characterization of the surface topography and the
fractal contact model, the predictive model of TCCs is proposed. Miki�c
model [44], Yovanovich model [45], BCM model [46], and CMY model
[13] are the classical TCC models. The above models are based on the
characterization of surface topography by the statistical theory and they
apply to the TCC prediction without fractal characteristics. But different
microprotrusions have different scales and then the deformation modes
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International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140
of them are different, resulting in the difference in the TCC of the con­
tacting microprotrusions with different scales. Thus the above models
cannot be used to predict the TCC between rollers and bearing rings. The
fractal network models, including M-B model [47] and M-T model [48],
are also proposed by considering the fractal characteristics of different
microprotrusions. However, the contact area distribution of M-B model
cannot be applied because the surface form changes the contact pa­
rameters. The deviation between the predicted TCCs obtained by M-T
model and the experimental data is also significant. So it is essential to
establish a fractal predictive model of TCCs to consider the effect of
surface forms. For the TCC modeling of the bearing system, it is reported
that the TCC is largely affected by the Hertzian contact area and the
thermal conductivity of the material [49–51]. Mizuta et al. conducted
the thermal analysis on the bearing system and concluded that the heat
conduction between bearings and rings was much more significant than
that between the lubricant and rings [52]. Isert et al. analyzed the
dependence of TCCs on the geometry and rotational speed [53]. Naka­
jima et al. predicted the TCC between the balls and rings by assuming
that heat transfer between smooth contacting elements occurs through
the elastic contact areas [54]. Savija et al. proposed the TCC model for
the grease-filled joints formed by conforming rough surfaces under light
contact pressures [55]. Paggi et al. studied the dependence of the TCC of
self-affine rough surfaces on the applied pressure [56]. Babu et al.
investigated the TCC between balls and rings based on experiments, and
the results showed that the TCC is proportional to the surface roughness
and inversely proportional to the interface temperature and medium
[11]. The above studies all focus the TCC of balls and rings in the ball
bearings, and the TCC between rollers and rings is rarely involved.
Moreover, the plastic deformation of the contact microprotrusions is not
considered generally, resulting in the modeling error in the TCC. More
importantly, the effect of the surface form on TCCs is not considered in
above studies. But the surface form has a significant effect on the TCC
according to Ref. [30].
It is concluded that the modeling of the TCC between rollers and
bearing rings is somewhat complex because the relative movement be­
tween the rollers and rings and the lubricant. The lubricant affects the
contraction conductance, leading to the difficulty in the modeling of the
TCC between rollers and bearing rings. To accurately characterize the
TCC between rollers and bearing rings, it is assumed that the roller
bearing is stationary without lubricant. To predict the TCC between
rollers and bearing rings, this paper focuses on a theoretical and
experimental investigation into the TCC modeling method of cylindrical
contact interfaces. Departing from the former studies, the present work
is related to the establishment of the TCC models for the cylindrical
contact interface. The TCC model is established based on the geometric
analysis of surface topography and the fractal contact mechanics
modeling. The most important feature of the theoretical model is the
realization of the calculation of the TCC for the contact between two
rough cylindrical surfaces by introducing the effective contact factor,
and then the effect of the surface form on the TCC between rollers and
bearing rings is considered. The principle idea of the method is to modify
the contact parameters by the effective contact factor in such a way that
the TCC model for the cylindrical contact interface is established. The
main advantage of the TCC models for the cylindrical contact interface is
its high modeling accuracy of the TCC. The predictive accuracy of the
TCC model is much higher than that of the former methods [50]. Further
details of the TCC model are presented in the remaining part of this
paper and are arranged as follows. The TCC modeling method was
proposed in Section 2. The Cantor set theory was applied to construct the
surface topography of bearing rings and rollers, and the structure
function was used to identify the fractal dimension in the Cantor set
theory. Then the fractal contact model was established and an effective
contact factor was constructed to modify the fractal contact model.
Finally, the discrete and continuous TCC models were established. In
Section 3, the experimental setup was constructed to measure the TCC
between rollers and bearing rings, and then the measured data were
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

compared with the predicted TCCs. Finally, the effectiveness of the TCC removed to obtain the rectangular grooves of the first generation. The
modeling method was demonstrated. In Section 4, the effect of the key total length of the grooves in the first generation is 1=fr of the total
factors, including the contact pressure, the fractal dimension, the con­ length of the initial 0th generation (fr > 1). The parameter s corresponds
tact area, the rotational speed, and the lubrication, on the TCC of roll­ to the number of repeated rectangular grooves in each generation.
er/ring contact interface was discussed. In Section 5, the conclusions Similarly, the total depth of the recessed portion in the first generation is
were presented based on previous analysis and discussion. 1=fr of that of the initial 0th generation (fz > 1). The rectangular grooves
of different scales are generated s times and then the total horizontal
2. TCR modeling of roller/bearing ring interface length and the recess depth of the grooves generated by the ith genera­
tion are obtained as
For the practical roller bearing, it needs to dissipate heat generated
due to bearing friction from the shaft to the bearing support. Moreover, li ¼ ð1=fr Þli 1 ¼ ð1=fr Þi l0
� � � �i (2)
the load usually is in one direction and hence the contact is not uniform hi ¼ 1 fz hi 1 ¼ 1 fz h0
along the perimeter. In addition the shaft rotates and new contacts form
as the shaft rotates, and it is normal to have some lubricant such as where li and hi denote the length and the height of the ith generation
grease. To establish the TCC model of the roller/bearing ring interface, groove, respectively; li 1 and hi 1 denote the length and the height of the
the following assumptions are made to simplify the modeling process ði 1Þth generation grooves, respectively; fr and fz denote the propor­
and exclude the effect of the above factors. (1) The roller bearing is tional coefficients in the width- and height-directions and these two
stationary without lubricant, and then the combined effect of the rota­ geometric dependent parameters identified by the topography of rough
tional speed and the lubrication on the TCC is not considered. (2) The surfaces; and l0 and h0 denote the length and the height of the 0th gen­
contact is uniform along the perimeter of the roller bearing to exclude eration groove, respectively.
the effect of the uneven load on the TCC. (3) The TCC at the thermal There are a total of N ¼ si grooves in the ith generation of the Cantor
equilibrium state of the roller bearing is studied, and then the effect of set profile. According to Fig. 3, the length of the single rectangular
the heat dissipation on the TCC is ignored. (4) The radiation and con­ groove in ith generation is expressed as
vection are not significant comparing to the conduction for the bearing
system, and then the effect of the radiation and convection is ignored. xi ¼ ð1=sfr Þi l0 (3)
The heat transfer mechanism between rollers and bearing rings is shown
in Fig. 1 and then the total TCC between rollers and bearing rings is where s denotes the number of the grooves in each generation.
expressed as The gap width between the grooves on two adjacent ith generations is
obtained as
h ¼ hOR þ hOI (1)
li 1 li l0 ðfr 1Þ sðfr 1Þ
gi ¼ ¼ ¼ xi ⋅ (4)
where hOR and hOI denote the TCCs of the roller/outer ring interface and ðs 1Þsi 1 ðs 1Þsi 1 f ir s 1
of the roller/inner ring interface, respectively. In this section, the
method to establish the TCC models of hOR and hOI will be proposed. where xi denotes the position of the groove of the ith generation in x-
direction.
The height of the grooves in the ith generation is expressed as
2.1. Characterization of rough surface
� �i �
zi ¼ 1 fz fz 1 h0 (5)
2.1.1. Cantor set theory
The topography of rough surfaces shows the fractal, self-affinity, and It is seen that the Cantor set fractal surfaces of different structures are
multiscale behaviors, as shown in Fig. 2. Then the Cantor set theory is obtained by changing the parameter s and the proportional coefficients
used to generate the topography of rough surfaces. The process to fr and fz . The fractal dimension of the Cantor set surfaces is expressed as
generate the surface fractal topography by the Cantor set theory is as lnfz ln s �
follows. In the horizontal direction, the single microprotrusion in the 0th Dp ¼ 1 þ
ln sfr ln sfr
1 < Dp < 2
generation is divided into (2s-1) segments, and then s segments are (6)
lnfz lns2
Ds ¼ 1 þ ð2 < Ds < 3Þ
ln sfr ln sfr

where Dp and Ds denote the fractal dimension of the 2D profile and

fractal dimension of 3D surfaces, respectively. The relationship between
them is Ds ¼ Dp þ 1. The fractal dimension Dp , the proportional co­
efficients fr and fz , the initial scale parameters l0 and h0 are obtained by
measuring the topography of rough surfaces. The parameter s is ob­
tained as
�3 1D �2 1Dp
s ¼ f rDs 1 ⋅fz s
¼ f Dr p 1 ⋅fz (7)

According to Eq. (7), the fractal dimension Dp , and the proportional

coefficients fr and fz should be computed to determine the parameter s.
The fractal dimension Dp , the proportional coefficients fr and fz are ob­
tained by measuring the topography of rough surfaces, and then the
Cantor set fractal surface is obtained to describe the actual surface
profile.

2.1.2. Identification of Cantor set fractal parameters

The fractal parameter of the Cantor set profile is obtained by its
structure function. The structure function is expressed as
Fig. 1. Heat transfer mechanism at roller/bearing ring interface.

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J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Fig. 2. 3D Cantor set fractal surface (s ¼ 3).

Fig. 3. Cantor set fractal profile.

� � � �
sðτÞ ¼ 〈½zðx þ τÞ 2
zðxÞ� 〉 ¼
Γ 2Dp 3 sin Dp 1:5 π 2ðDp 1Þ ð4
� G τ 2Dp Þ where zðxÞ denotes the rough profile height in the x-direction; τ denotes
4 2Dp ln γ the increment in the x-direction; G denotes the characteristic parameter
(8) related to the topography; Γ denotes the Gamma function; and γ denotes
the scale factor to determine the spectral density and γ ¼ 1:5.

5
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

The structure function is taken logarithm on both sides, then as

� �
log sðτÞ ¼ log C þ 2 Dp 1 log G þ 4 2Dp log τ (9) sðτÞ ¼ 〈½z1 ðx þ τÞ z1 ðxÞ�2 〉 2〈z1 ðx þ τÞ z1 ðxÞ〉〈z2 ðx þ τÞ z2 ðxÞ〉
� � þ 〈½z2 ðx þ τÞ z2 ðxÞ� 〉2
(12)
Γð2Dp 3Þsin½ðDp 1:5Þπ �
where C ¼ ln ð4 2Dp Þln γ .
where z1 ðx þτÞ and z2 ðx þτÞ denote the roughness heights of two rough
The structure function is a straight line in the double logarithmic surfaces.
coordinates (τ logðsðτÞÞ). The slope and the intercept on the vertical The rough surfaces, which are in contact with each other, are sta­
axis of the straight line are ks ¼ ð4 2Dp Þ and bs ¼ log C þ 2ðDp tistically uncorrelated and then the product term in Eq. (12) is zero. So
1Þlog G, respectively. Then the fractal dimension Dp and the scaling the structure function of the equivalent rough surface is
parameter G are identified by the slope ks and the intercept bs . The
fractal dimension and the characteristic parameter are expressed as sðτÞ ¼ 〈½z1 ðx þ τÞ z1 ðxÞ�2 〉 þ 〈½z2 ðx þ τÞ z2 ðxÞ�2 〉 (13)

Dp ¼ ð4 ks Þ=2 That is, the structure function of the equivalent rough surface is the
(10)
G ¼ eðbs log CÞ=2=ðD 1Þ
sum of the structure functions of two contact surfaces, as shown in Fig. 8.
For the equivalent rough surface, the linearity of the structure function
The structure function sðτÞ→ þ ∞ when the fractal dimension Dp ¼
is excellent, and then the relative error between the identified and actual
1. Moreover, the structure function sðτÞ ¼ πGτ=ð2 ln γÞ when the fractal
fractal dimensions can be ignored.
dimension Dp ¼ 1:5. Besides, the structure function sðτÞ→ þ ∞ when the
The initial scale parameters l0 and h0 are obtained by measuring the
fractal dimension Dp ¼ 2. The topography of the ring groove was
topography of rough surfaces. In the Cantor set model, the initial scale
collected by the laser scanning confocal microscope, as shown in Fig. 4
parameter h0 is equal to 2 times of the root mean square roughness σ of
(a), and then the profile in x-direction is obtained as Fig. 4(b). It is seen
the equivalent surface, namely h0 ¼ 2σ. The root mean square rough­
that the high and low fluctuations of the surface topography are obvious. qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
The structure function is calculated by ness σ of the equivalent surface is expressed as σ ¼ σ 21 þ σ22 . The initial

NX
n 1
scale parameter l0 is the sampling length of the profile and the relevant
sðτÞ ¼
1
ðziþn zi Þ2 (11) length is usually taken as l0 . The root mean square roughness σ is used to
N n i¼0 calculate the relevant length, and then
The profile data in the x-direction shown in Fig. 4(b) are taken as the �
σ2 4 2Dp
�� 1
4 2Dp

input, and then the structure function is calculated in the double loga­ l0 ¼ (14)
G2Dp 2
rithmic coordinates, as shown in Fig. 5. It is shown that the structure
function of the 2D topography of bearing grooves has excellent linearity, The proportional coefficients fr in x-direction and fz in z-direction are
which means the fractal parameters can be well identified. obtained by the relationship between the displacement u in the normal
Then the 3D topography of rollers was obtained by a laser micro­ direction and the actual contact area Ar .
scope, as shown in Fig. 6. The surface topography of rollers is different � �
l2 σ u
from that of the bearing grooves and the topography of rollers is much Ar ¼ 0 (15)
κϕ fz h0
flatter than that of the bearing rings. The fine structure of the roller
surface is less than that of the bearing groove.
ln f 2r
Then the structure-function of the roller topography is depicted in where κ ¼ lnfz ; u denotes the contact deformation; and ϕ ¼ ffz2 11.
r
Fig. 7. It is shown that the structure function of the topography of the The rough surface profile is truncated and then the cross-section
roller surface has excellent linearity, which means the fractal parameters areas Ar1 and Ar2 are obtained by the heights of contacting micro­
can also be accurately identified. protrusions. The deformations of the roller and ring surfaces are u1 and
The actual contact of the two rough surfaces is equivalent to the u2 , respectively. By substituting σ u1 and σ u2 into Eq. (15) and
contact between a flat rigid surface and an equivalent rough surface simultaneously solving the nonlinear equation set, the proportional
according to the contact mechanics theory. Then the roughness of the coefficients fr and fz are then obtained. Finally, the parameter s is ob­
equivalent surface is expressed as z1 ðxÞ z2 ðxÞ, wherein z1 ðxÞ and z2 ðxÞ tained by substituting the above parameters into Eq. (7).
denote the roughness heights of roller and ring surfaces, respectively.
Then the structure function of the equivalent rough surface is obtained

Fig. 4. 3D topography of bearing grooves.

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J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Fig. 5. Structure function of x-direction topography.

Fig. 6. 3D topography of rollers.

Fig. 7. Structure function of roller surface.

2.2. Fractal contact model between cylindrical surfaces
2.2.1. Contact area
The contact between two Cantor set fractal surfaces is equivalent to
the contact between an equivalent surface and an ideal, smooth, and
rigid surface. The elastoplastic deformation happens to the equivalent
surface when the external load is applied. By cutting the solid portions
from the top plane of the single microprotrusion in the first generation,
the rectangular grooves are generated in a self-similar manner and then
the Cantor set fractal surfaces are generated. The solid portions, which

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J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Fig. 8. Structure function of equivalent rough surface.

have not been cut, undertake the normal contact load. Moreover, the nc th generation and the nc th generation is the oldest generation that
elastic and plastic deformations happen to these portions. For solid undertakes the external load.
portions in any generation, the elastic deformation occurs to them and The plastic deformation happens to the solid portions in the range of
then the deformation changes from elastic deformation to plastic ½nth
c ∞� generation and the elastic deformation happens to the solid
;
deformation when the load is increased. The critical contact load is Fc ¼
portions in the range of ½0; ðnc 1Þth � generation. The solid portions in
HAc according to the plastic deformation theory, wherein H and Ac
the ðnc 1Þth generation are in actual contact with the ideal plane. Then
denote the hardness and the critical contact area, respectively. The
the critical generation nc is obtained as
critical contact load corresponds with the transformation point from the
� �
elastic deformation to plastic deformation. ln ξ
The ideal, smooth, and rigid surface will first come into contact with nc ¼ trun � 2� (16)
ln 1 f r
the solid portion which has not been cut in the youngest generation. If
the critical load of the ith generation is smaller than the normal contact where trun½x� denotes the truncation function; and ξ denotes the
load, namely Fc < F, then the deformation of the solid portion of the ith dimensionless contact pressure and ξ ¼ H⋅lF 2 , wherein F and H denote the
generation is transformed from elastic deformation to plastic deforma­ 0

normal contact load and the micro hardness, respectively.

tion, as shown in Fig. 9. The solid portion of the ith generation with The critical generation nc is a positive integer due to the effect of the
plastic deformation will flow into the void grooves between the solid truncation function trun½x�. When the normal contact load F increases,
portions by considering the volume conservation of the micro­
the condition that N � ln ξ=lnð1 =f 2r Þ � N þ 1 is satisfied and the critical
protrusions with plastic deformation. Then the ideal, smooth, and, rigid
generation nc does not change. When the contact load F is increased to a
surface will be in contact with the microprotrusions in previous gener­
certain value, the condition that ln ξ=lnð1 =f 2r Þ ¼ N þ 1 is satisfied and
ations (the ith generation). Therefore, the critical generation nc is
then critical generation nc increases to nc þ 1. The truncation function
introduced by the considering the shape, materials, and the contact
trun½x� will eventually lead to the stepwise increase trend of TCCs. The
force. The above processes continue until the end of the ðnc 1Þth gen­
non-contact area of the each microprotrusion in the ith generation is
eration, and then the critical load of this generation is greater than the
obtained as
applied load. The solid portions in the ðnc 1Þth generation will be in
elastic contact with the ideal, smooth, and rigid surface. The contact (17-a)
2i
As;i ¼ x2i ¼ ð1=sfr Þ l20
load is generated by the plastic deformation of the solid portions in the
There are a total of s2i rectangular grooves in the ith generation of the

Fig. 9. Elastic-plastic deformation model.

8
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Cantor set fractal profile, and then the total non-contact area of the ith when the surface form is the cylindrical surface, which means that Eq.
generation is expressed as (19) and Eq. (22) are not suitable to compute the contact parameters
between cylindrical surfaces. Instead, they only apply to the calculation
1 l20 of the contact parameters of the contact between two rough surfaces
Ai ¼ As;i ⋅s2i ¼ i ⋅l0 ⋅si ¼ 2i (17-b)
ðsfr Þ fr without curvatures.
Then the effective contact factor η should be considered for the
The total non-contact area between the each groove in the ith gen­
contact between rough cylindrical surfaces, which is the case for the
eration is obtained as
contact between rollers and bearing rings. The effective contact factor η
�2i
f 2 1 l2 is introduced as
Ag;s;i ¼ xi ⋅gi ⋅2sðs 1Þ þ gi ⋅gi ⋅ðs 1Þ2 ¼ r2i 2ði 1Þ 0 (18-a)
fr s 2� �1=2 3R1 �R1
2 1
4B R1 R2
th
F’
There are a total of s2〈i 1〉 grooves in the ði 1Þ generation of the 6 7
πE R1 �R2
η¼6
4 � � 7 5 (23)
Cantor set fractal profile and then the total non-contact area of the π R1 R2

1Þth generation is expressed as

R1 �R2
ði
�
f 2 1 l2 where R1 and R2 denote the radii of the grooves 1 and 2, respectively;
Ag;i ¼ Ag;s;i ⋅s2ði 1Þ ¼ r 2i 0 (18-b)
fr and B denotes the width of the grooves; ’þ’ denotes outer contact; and
’–’ denotes the inner contact; and F’ denotes the total contact load.
Then the total contact area over the contact interface is expressed as The relationship between the effective contact factor η and the
8X �k i ! contact radius is depicted in Fig. 11. The effective contact factor η in­
>
∞
f 2r 1 l20
>
>
> l 2
k k>i creases with R2 for both external and inner contacts, resulting in a
> f 2i
< k¼iþ1 r smaller actual contact area and contact load. The expectation for the
Ar ¼ (19)
>
> �i k 2 ! decrease in the contact area and contact load is identical to that obtained
>X i
f 2
1 l
>
>
: l2k r 0
k�i by Fig. 10. The effective contact factor η is still less than 1. The effective
k¼0 f 2i
r contact factor η→1 for the inner contact and the situation is equivalent
to full contact between two cylinders. The increase of R2 enlarges the
where lk denotes the length of the kth generation grooves; and k denotes effective contact factor η by improving the contact condition. The
the kth generation microprotrusion. effective contact factor η for the inner contact is greater than that for
external contact when R1 ¼ R2 . The number of contact points in the
2.2.2. Contact load inner contact will be more than that in external contact and the contact
The critical plastic deformation is expressed as stress in inner contact will be less than that for external contact ac­
� �2 cording to Eq. (23). All the above conclusions are consistent with that
H
upi ¼ 0:89xi * (20) obtained by the classical Hertz contact theory. The effect of surface
E forms on the contact performance is reasonably reflected by the effective
contact factor η, which demonstrates the credibility of the selection of
where H denotes the hardness of the softer material; and E* denotes the
the effective contact factor η.
equivalent elastic modulus and 1=E* ¼ ð1 v21 Þ=E1 þ ð1 v22 Þ=E2 . Then the actual contact area for the contact interface of cylindrical
If ui < upi , the contacting microprotrusions deform elastically and surfaces is modified as
then the elastic contact load of the single pair of contacting micro­
8 X �k i !
protrusions is expressed as >
∞
f 2r 1 l20
>
> η⋅ 2
lk k>i
>
> f 2i
4 1=2 3=2 < i¼0 r
Fie ¼ E* xi ui (21-a) Ar ’ ¼ η ⋅ Ar ¼ (24-a)
3 >
> �i k 2 !
>
> X∞
f 2
1 l
>
: η⋅ 2
lk r 0
k�i
where ui denotes the deformation of the microprotrusions in the ith f 2i
i¼0 r
generation.
If ui > upi , the contacting microprotrusions deform plastically and The dimensionless contact area is expressed as
then the plastic contact load of the single pair of contacting micro­ Ar ’
protrusions is expressed as Ar ’ � ¼ (24-b)
Aa
� �� �
Fip ¼ xi ui 2
upi
1 0:6
upi
H (21-b) The total contact load over the contact interface of cylindrical sur­
ui ui faces is modified as
Then the total contact load over the contact interface is expressed as 8 X ∞
>
> η⋅ s2i ⋅Fie if ui < upi
8 X∞ < i¼n
(25-a)
0 c
>
> F¼ s2i ⋅Fie if ui < upi F ¼ η⋅F ¼
< >
> X
nc 1

(22) : η⋅
i¼n c
s2i ⋅Fip if ui > upi
>
> X
nc 1
i¼0
:F ¼ s2i ⋅Fip if ui > upi
i¼0 The dimensionless contact load is expressed as
F’
2.2.3. Effective contact factor F’� ¼ (25-b)
Both Eq. (19) and Eq. (22) are constructed when the surfaces are not Aa ⋅E
curved, cylindrical, and spherical surfaces. However, the surfaces of
rollers and rings are the cylindrical surfaces, and then the contact be­ 2.3. Discrete TCC model
tween them is the internal contact between cylindrical surfaces. The
change of the surface forms leads to the change in the fractal contact The TCC of the roller/ring interface is made up of the heat conduc­
area, as shown in Fig. 10. It is seen that the total contact area decreases tion TCC and the contraction TCC. The heat conduction TCC is caused by
the heat transfer of the bulk at the contact interface. The contraction

9
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Fig. 10. Contact between two cylindrical surfaces.

where ψ ¼ H=E. The actual height of the rectangular grooves in the

range of ½0; nc 1� generations is obtained when the elastic deformation
happens.
� �
δnc 1 ¼ z’nc 1 unc 1 ¼ h0 f 1z nc fz αβ 1 ξψ f 2ðnc 1Þ
; i ¼ nc 1
i
� 2i
�
r
(29)
uc;i ¼ zi uc;i ¼ h0 f z fz 1 1 ξψ f r ; 0 � i � nc 2

Then the heat conduction TCR of the solid portions in the range of
½0; nc 1� generations is obtained according to R ¼ ΔT=Q.
� 2 2 �nc 1
δnc 1 h0 � s fr �
Ra;nc 1 ¼ ¼ ⋅ fz αβ ⋅ 1 ξψ fr2ðnc 1Þ
i ¼ nc 1
k⋅x2nc 1 kl20 fz
!� �i
δi h0 s2 fr2 �
Ra;i ¼ 2 ¼ 2 ⋅ fz 1 ⋅ 1 ξψ fr2i ; 0 � i � nc 2
k⋅xi kl0 fz
(30-a)
The heat conduction TCC of the solid portions in the range of
½0; nc 1� generations is obtained according to H ¼ Q=ðΔT ⋅Aa Þ.
� �nc 1
kl20 f 1 1
Fig. 11. Effective contact factor η. Ha;nc 1 ¼ �⋅ 2 z 2 ⋅ �⋅ i ¼ nc 1
h0 fz αβ s fr 1 ξψ fr2ðnc 1Þ Aa
TCC is induced by the heat flux contraction and is generated at the kl20 1
�
f
�i
1 1
discrete contact portions. The method to establish the heat conduction Ha;i ¼ ⋅ �⋅ 2 z 2 ⋅ �⋅ 0 � i � nc 2
h0 fz 1 s fr 1 ξψ fr2i Aa
TCC model and the contraction TCC model will be introduced.
(30-b)
2.3.1. Heat conduction TCC
where Aa denotes the nominal contact area and Aa ¼ l20 .
The plastic deformation happens to the solid portions in the range of
½nc ; ∞� generations and the plastic displacement in the normal direction
2.3.2. Contraction TCC
is expressed as
The contraction TCC is caused by the contraction of the heat flux at
unc ¼ h0 αβf 1z nc
(26) each pair contacting portions. According to the contraction TCR model
[44], the contraction TCR between a pair of contacting solid portions is
!k expressed as
1
P∞ 1
where α ¼ 1 f 2r
and β ¼ k¼0 f 2r fz
.
1
rc ¼ φðc = bÞ (31)
Since the volume conservation is considered in the plastic model, the 2cks
plastic flow material is accumulated on the solid portions without plastic
where φðc =bÞ denotes the contraction coefficient, wherein b and c
deformation. Then the height of the grooves in ðnc 1Þth generation is
denote the radii of the contact area and the heat flow channel, respec­
increased as
tively. Since each solid portion of the Cantor set fractal surface is a
z’nc 1 ¼ znc 1 þ ðhnc 1 unc Þ (27) quadrangular prism, the radii b and c are replaced by ðxi þgi Þ =2 and
xi =2, respectively. The heat flux contraction from the solid portion of the
th
where znc 1 denotes the height of the grooves in ðnc 1Þ generation; ði 1Þth generation to the contraction heat of the single solid portion of
th
hnc 1 denotes the height of the solid portion in the ðnc 1Þ generation; the ith generation is expressed as
and unc denotes the deformation of the critical generation.
The elastic deformation happens to the solid portions in the range of Rc;i ¼
f ½gi =ðxi þ gi Þ� ðs
¼
1Þsi 1 f ir ⋅f ½gi =ðxi þ gi Þ�
(32)
½0; nc 1� generation and then the corresponding height of the solid 2kgi 2kl0 ðfr 1Þ
portions in each generation is reduced by the normal displacement uc;i .
The elastic deformation of the solid portions in the range of ½0; nc 1� where f½xi =ðxi þgi Þ� denotes the contraction coefficient function and
generations is expressed as � � � �1:5
sðfr 1Þ
� � f xi = ðxi þ gi Þ ¼ 1 (33)
� f 2r sfr 1
uc;nc 1 ¼ ξψ h0 fz αβ ; i ¼ nc 1
fz
� � (28) 2.3.3. Total discrete TCC
uc;i ¼ ξψ h0 fz 1
� f 2r
; 0 � i � nc 2 The TCR of the single solid portion of the ðnc 1Þth generation is the
fz series TCR of the heat conduction TCR and contraction TCR. The TCR of

10
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

a single solid portion of the ðnc 1Þth generation is obtained as Substituting Eq. (32) into Eq. (38), the total contraction TCR Rtc is
obtained as
Rs;ðnc 1Þ ¼ Ra;ðnc 1Þ þ Rc;ðnc 1Þ (34) !
X
nc 2

Due to the accumulation of s2 solid portions in the ðnc 1Þth gener­ Rtc ¼ Rtc0 Y0 þ Yi (40-a)
th
ation on a single solid portion of the ðnc 2Þ generation, the total TCR
i¼1

of the solid portions of the ðnc 1Þth generation on a single solid portion where Rtc0 ¼ f½xi =ðxi þgi Þ�
; Y0 ¼ ðs=fr Þ1 nc
; and Yi ¼ ðs=fr Þiþ1 nc
.
th 2kl0
of the ðnc 2Þ generation is Then the total heat conduction TCC Htc is obtained as
�2
Rt;ðnc 1Þ ¼ ðRa;ðnc 1Þ þ Rc;ðnc 1Þ Þ s (35) 1 1
Htc ¼ � nP
�⋅ (40-b)
c 2 Aa
Similarly, there are a total of s2 solid portions in ðnc 3Þth generation Rtc0 Y0 þ Yi
on a single solid portion in the ðnc 2Þth generation. So the total TCR of
i¼1

the solid portions in a single solid portion in ðnc 3Þth generation is 2.4. Continuous TCC model
expressed as
�
ðRa;ðnc 1Þ þ Rc;ðnc 1Þ Þ s2 þ ðRa;ðnc 1Þ þ Rc;ðnc 1Þ Þ The TCR obtained by Eq. (38) is discrete. However, the TCR
Rt;ðnc 1Þ ¼ (36) continuously changes with the influencing factors in the actual process,
s2
and then a continuous model of TCR is further derived below. For a solid
The above calculation process of TCRs continues, and then the total portion whose height is dz and its elastic displacement under the normal
TCR is obtained as contact load is due ¼ F⋅dz=E=Ar . The actual height of the solid portion is
ðRa;ðnc 1Þ þRc;ðnc 1Þ Þ=s2 þðRa;ðnc 2Þ þRc;ðnc 2Þ Þ expressed as dz due ¼ ð1 F =E =Ar Þ⋅dz. Then the TCR of this solid
Rt;0 ¼ s2
þ Ra;ðnc 3Þ þ Rc;ðnc 3Þ
þ⋯ (37) portion is obtained according to the definition of TCRs.
s2 Z Z � �
1 F’
Eq. (37) is a recursive function, and the corresponding total TCR dR ¼ 2
dz (41)
kAr kE� Ar
model is a recursive tree network model, as shown in Fig. 12. Finally, the
total recursive TCR is summarized as As described above, the plastic flow occurs to these solid portions in
the range of the ½nc 1; ∞� generations. The solid portions of the
X
nc 1 X
nc 1
Rt;0 ¼ s2ði nc þ1Þ
½Ra;ðnc 1 iÞ þ Rc;ðnc 1 iÞ � ¼ s2ði nc þ1Þ
Ra;ðnc 1 iÞ ðnc 1Þth generation pile up below these solid portions and the elastic
i¼0 i¼0
(38) deformation occurs to the solid portions of the ðnc 1Þth generation
X
nc 1
þ s2ði nc þ1Þ
Rc;ðnc ¼ Rbc þ Rtc under the effect of the normal load. The elastic deformation occurs to
1 iÞ
i¼0 these solid portions which are in the range of the ½0; nc 1� generations.
Then the total TCR is made up of two parts with different deformations.
By substituting Eq. (30-a) into Eq. (38), the total heat conduction
One part is the TCR of the volume conservation caused by the material’s
TCR Rbc is obtained as
plastic flow, and the other part is the TCR of the fully elastic deforma­
!
X
nc 1 tion. Assuming that the actual contact area remains the same for the first
Rbc ¼ Rhc0 X0 þ Xi (39-a) part of the TCR in the height range of up � z � up ’, namely Ap ðz ¼ up Þ ¼
Ap ðz ¼ up ’Þ, then up and up ’ are obtained as
i¼1

nc 1
where Rhc0 ¼ h0 =ðkl20 Þ; X0 ¼ ðfz αβÞ⋅ðf 2r =fz Þ ð1 ξψ f 2ðn c 1Þ
Þ; and up ¼ αβf�z h0 ðξκϕÞ1=κ
r (42)
nc 1 i up ’ ¼ up ðαβÞ
Xi ¼ ðfz 1Þ⋅ðf 2r =fz Þ ð1 ξψ f 2ðn
r
c 1 iÞ
Þ.
Then the total heat conduction TCC Hbc is obtained as
where κ ¼ ln f 2r =ln fz ; and ϕ ¼ ðfz 1Þ=ðf 2r 1Þ.
Hbc ¼ �
1
�⋅
1
(39-b) The TCR of the volume conservation material caused by the plastic
Rhc0 X0 þ
nP
c 1
Xi
Aa flow is obtained by integrating Eq. (41) within the range of up � z � up ’.
i¼1

Fig. 12. A recursive tree network model of total TCR.

11
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Z up ’ �
1 F
�
R0
1=κ relationship between the TCR is not a simple power relationship be­
Rp ¼ dz ¼ ð1 ψ Þð1 αβÞðξκϕÞ (43) tween the contact pressure ψ , but a complex term for different power
kAr kEA2r ξ
functions.
up

where R0 denotes the TCR of the contact area of the ideal, smooth, and
flat plane and it is the minimum TCR of the contact area 3. Experimental validation
� �
R0 ¼ fz h0 kl20 (44) 3.1. Test specimens
For fully elastically deformed materials, the TCR is obtained by
The length and diameter of the rollers are 50 mm and 30 mm,
integrating Eq, (43) in the range of up ’ � z � fz h0 .
respectively. The width, the inner and outer diameters of the inner ring
�κ �2κ !
Z fz h0 �
1 F
� Z fz h0
kϕ fz h0 ðkϕÞ2 fz h0 are 50 mm, 80 mm and 100 mm, respectively. The width, the inner and
Re ¼ dz ¼ dz (45) outer diameters of the outer ring are 50 mm, 130 mm and 150 mm,
up ’ kAc kEA2c up ’ kl20 zκ kEl40 z2κ
respectively. The grooves of rings and the surfaces of rollers were
For fully elastically deformed materials, the actual contact area is grinded into cylindrical surfaces and shot blasting was implemented to
expressed as Ac ¼ ðl20 =κ =ϕÞðz =fz =h0 Þ. By integrating Eq. (45), three get isotropic experimental surfaces. Moreover, six holes, whose diameter
solutions to the TCR of fully elastic deformation materials are obtained. and length are 0.6 mm and 5 mm respectively, were drilled on the both
� � � � � � inner and the outer rings. Then twelve holes were drilled in the radial
��
Re ¼ R 0 ϕ
κ κ 1
1 ðξκϕÞ1 κ þ R0 ξϕ f 2r þ 1 ln
ξ 2
f þ1 ðκ ¼ 1 = 2Þ direction of the roller with identical sizes. These holes are used for
1 κ 2 2 r welding the thermocouples to measure the temperature difference at the
(46-a) contact interface. The TCC between rollers and bearing rings is
0 1 expressed as
κ2
(46-b) Q
1 2κ
Re ¼ R0 ln ξ R0 ξ ψ ϕ 2 @1 ðξκϕÞ κ A ðκ ¼ 1Þ H¼ (48-a)
1 2κ An ΔT

0 1 where ΔT denotes the temperature difference between rollers and

κ @1 1 κ bearing rings; An is the nominal contact area; and Q denotes the heat
Re ¼ R 0 ϕ ðξκϕÞ A κ
1 κ flowing across the contact interface.
0 1 The thermocouples were used to measure the temperature difference
κ2 ΔT of the contact interface. The experimental TCC of a particular pair of
(46-c)
1 2κ
R0 ξψ ϕ2 @1 ðξκϕÞ κ A ðκ 6¼ 1&κ 6¼ 1 = 2Þ
1 2κ test specimens was determined from the estimated heat flux Q and the
temperature drop ΔT across the interface.
Aa ΔT Aa ½ðTo1 To2 Þ ðTi1 Ti2 Þ�
(1) If κ ¼ 1=2 Hc ¼ ¼ (48-b)
Q Q1 Q2
� �� �� �1=κ � �
R0 κ κ
R¼ 1 ψ 1 αβ ξκϕ þ R0 ϕ 1 ðξκϕÞ1 κ
where To1 denotes the average value of the temperatures obtained by
ξ 1 κ
� � � � �� T1~T6; To2 denotes the average value of the temperatures obtained by
1 ξ 2
2
þ R0 ξϕ f r þ 1 ln f þ1 T7~T12; Ti1 denotes the average value of the temperatures obtained by
2 2 r T13~T18; and Ti2 denotes the average value of the temperatures ob­
(47-a) tained by T19~T24; and Q1 and Q2 denote the heat measured by the
heat flux meter #1 and the heat flux meter #2, respectively.
where ψ ¼ H=E.
The heat flow through the interface was assumed to be identical to
(2) If κ ¼ 1
the heat flowing across Armco iron flux meter. The thermocouple signals
R0
� �� �� �1=κ are converted into temperature values. The temperature distributions
R¼
ξ
1 ψ 1 αβ ξκϕ R0 ln ξ within the roller and ring specimens were used to determine the contact
0 1 temperature drop by extrapolating to the contact plane. The tempera­
2 κ
2
ture drop ΔT was obtained by extrapolating the temperature distribu­
(47-b)
1 2κ
R0 ξψ ϕ @1 ðξκϕÞ κ A
1 2κ tions over the contact interface based on the reading from different
thermocouples, and the temperature difference between the extrapo­
lated values is computed. All thermocouples were calibrated in the
(3) If κ 6¼ 1&κ 6¼ 1=2 laboratory and estimated to be accurate to �0:01 � C.
0 1
� �� �� �1=κ
R0 κ @1 1 κ 3.2. Experimental setup
R¼ 1 ψ 1 αβ ξκϕ þ R0 ϕ ðξκϕÞ A
κ
ξ 1 κ
0 1 The experimental setup was constructed to collect the TCC between
κ2 1 2κ rollers and bearing rings, as shown in Fig. 13. The system is made up of
R0 ξψ ϕ2 @1 A
ðξκϕÞ the insulator, the electric heater, the inner and outer rings, four bolts,
κ
1 2κ
the roller, the heat flux meter, the thermocouples, the heat sink, the
(47-c) compression pump, the throttle valve, the cooling pipe, and the cooling
tank. The electric heater, which is contact with the outer ring, is used to
heat the outer ring. The insulator is used to keep the heat from not being
dissipated. The electric heater is powered by DC supply. The heat power
From the derivation process of the continuous model, the continuous
of the electric heater is adjustable and then the temperature difference is
TCR model is closely related to the geometric parameters of the rough
adjusted in the range of [20 � C, 65 � C]. The heat sink is used to keep the
surface (α, β, κ and ϕ), and the physical parameters (the thermal con­
temperature of the inner ring be constant (20 � C). Then a steady tem­
ductivity k, and the ratio of the hardness H to the elastic modulus E). The
perature is generated between the bearing inner and outer rings and the

12
J. Liu et al.
Fig. 13. Experimental setup.
heat flow is stable in the measurement. The heat sink is realized by using
the circulating cooling system. The compression pump and the throttle
valve are used to adjust the flow and the flow rate, respectively. The
Type-T thermocouples, which are welded to holes on the roller and
rings, are applied to collect the temperatures on both sides of the contact
interfaces of the roller/outer ring and the roller/inner ring. The diam­
eter and height of the holes are 0.6 mm and 5 mm, respectively. The
precision of the thermocouples was calibrated in the range of � 0:01 � C.
The Armco heat flux meter, which was in contact with the roller and
bearing rings, was used to measure the heat Q flowing across the contact
interface of the roller and bearing rings.
The roller bearings need to dissipate heat generated due to bearing
friction from the shaft to the bearing support in the actual application,
and then the thermal state of the roller bearings is not a static state. The
TCC is difficult to be measured at the non-equilibrium state. For the
roller bearings, the thermal non-equilibrium state is limited comparing
against its service time. Then the thermal contact conductance (TCC)
modeling and experiments of the roller bearings at the thermal equi­
librium state were studied. The measurement of the TCC is conducted
under steady-state conditions. When all temperatures have a variation
less than 0.05 � C in 5 min, it is believed that the steady-state condition is
achieved. The heater power was controlled manually and kept constant
for each data point. To simulate the heat flowing from the bearing to the
shaft, the circulating cooling system was used to dissipate the heat
generated due to bearing friction. The data acquisition system based on
NI SCXI1600 was used to acquire the temperature difference and heat
flux. The temperatures were measured using copper-constantan ther­
mocouples. In the TCC modeling, it is assumed that the TCC at the
thermal equilibrium state of the roller bearing is studied. The load
applied on rollers usually is in one direction and that hence the contact is
not uniform along the perimeter in the service process of the roller
bearings. To simplify the TCC modeling, it is assumed that the contact is
uniform along the perimeter. In the experiment, four bolts are tightened
to the same extent, and then the load applied by four bolts is equilib­
rium. Finally the uneven loading along the perimeter is avoided. The
load is subject to elastic and plastic deformations of the contacting
microptrusions. Then the external load is balance with the contact load
generated by the deformations of the contacting microptrusions.
3.3. Model validation
The parameters used in the TCC model determined by the surface
topography, and then they are identified according to the data shown in
Section 2.1.2. The Olympus laser confocal microscope LEXT OLS4000
13
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140
was used to measure the topography of the ring groove and the ring, as
shown in Figs. 4 and 6. Then the structure functions of the ring groove
and the ring groove are obtained, seen in Figs. 5 and 7. The structure
function of the equivalent surface is calculated according to Eq. (13),
seen in Fig. 8. Subsequently, the 2D fractal dimension Dp , the 3D fractal
dimension Ds , and the characteristic parameter G are identified ac­
cording to Eq. (10). The other parameters used in the TCC model are
then obtained, as listed in Table 1.
To verify the validity of the model, the TCCs were measured for the
test sample of SS304 and carbon steel, and then the measured data were
compared with that obtained by the proposed model, as shown in
Fig. 14. It is seen that the TCC increases with the contact pressure and
that the discrete model could fit well with the measured TCC in the
whole range of the contact pressure. The discrete model is a ladder
function because Eq. (16) is a truncation function and the discrete model
maintains a good consistency with the continuous model. For the
continuous model, the predicted TCC shows the continuous increase
trend and it matches well with the measured TCC. According to Fig. 14,
the maximum and average errors between the predicted TCCs and the
measured data are 10.21% and 8.14%, respectively. Moreover, the TCC
is accurately predicted when the effective contact factor is considered.
When the effective contact factor is not considered, the predicted TCC is
greater than that because the effective contact factor is smaller than 1
according to Fig. 11. So it is necessary to introduce the effective contact
factor into the TCC modeling because the surface form changes the
contact parameters and the introduction of the effective contact factor is
effective to predict the TCC between rollers and bearing rings. The
predicted TCC obtained by the M-T model is greater than that obtained
by the proposed model. Both M-T model and present model without the
effective contact factor cannot predict the TCC effectively because the
cylindrical surface shape changes the contact parameters. The above
analysis verifies the validity of the predictive model of TCCs.
4. Results and discussion
The contact pressure, the fractal dimension, the contact area, the
rotational speed, and the lubrication are key factors, influencing the TCC
of the roll/bearing ring interface. In this section, the effect of these key
factors on the TCC will be discussed.
4.1. Impact of contact pressure
The relationship between the TCC and the contact pressure is shown
in Fig. 14. It is seen that the TCC increases with the contact pressure for
both SS304 and carbon steel. According to Eq. (16), the greater the
critical contact load, the greater the critical generation nc will be. For the
solid portion in the nth generation, the deformation unc is increased and
the actual height δnc is decreased. Similar changes take place for solid
portions in other generations. Finally, the actual contact area and con­
tact load will be increased according to Eq. (24) and Eq. (25). Then the
difficulty for the heat flux to travel the contact interface of rollers and
bearing rings is reduced and the TCC is increased correspondingly.
4.2. Impact of fractal dimension
Different profiles are generated by the Cantor set theory with
different fractal dimension, as shown in Fig. 15. The greater the fractal
dimension, the lower is the height of the solid portions, and then the
finer is the surface solid portions according to Eq. (34) in Ref. [29]. The
Table 1
Parameters used in the TCC model.
l0 (μm) h0 (μm) Dp Ds fr fz s σ(μm)
65 6.02 1.86 2.75 1.55 1.16 38.1 3.01
J. Liu et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140

Fig. 14. Comparison of predictions by algorithm with existing models and experimental data.

Fig. 15. 3D topography of rough surfaces.

greater the fractal dimension, the larger proportion is the
high-frequency component in the surface topography. Therefore, the
smaller the fractal dimension, the rougher is the surface. Then the cor­
responding TCC will be smaller according to Eq. (7) and Eq. (47).
The relationship between the TCC and the fractal dimension Dp is
obtained, as shown in Fig. 16(a). It is seen that the TCC increases with
the fractal dimension Dp . The slope of the TCC curve increases with the
fractal dimension Dp under different contact pressures. Then the
relationship between the TCC and the mean roughness is obtained, as
shown in Fig. 16(b). It is shown that the decrease trend of the TCC is
obvious because the actual contact area decreases with the mean
roughness, resulting in the increase in the difficulty for the heat flux to
travel the contact interface of rollers and bearing rings.

Fig. 16. Effect of roughness and fractal dimension on TCC.

14
J. Liu et al.
Fig. 17. Effect of contact area on TCC.
4.3. Impact of contact area
The relationship between the TCC and the contact area is shown in
Fig. 17. Both the dimensionless TCCs obtained by the continuous model
and the discrete model increase with the dimensionless contact area, as
shown in Fig. 17(a). The reason is that the dimensionless contact area
increases with the contact pressure ξ according to Eq. (16) and Eq. (25).
The increase in the contact pressure leads to the increase in the critical
generation nc according to Eq. (16). The change trend of the dimen­
sionless contact area is shown in Fig. 17(b) and it is consistent with that
shown in Eq. (25-b). Therefore, the contact area increases with the
contact pressure by enlarging the critical generation nc . Moreover, the
dimensionless contact area increases approximately linearly with the
dimensionless contact pressure. Besides, the increase in contact area
provides more heat flow channels, resulting in an increase in the TCC.
4.4. Impact of rotational speed
For the dynamic bearing, the TCC with run-in has much more
meaning. Then the bearings worked with the rotational speed 6000r/
min until it was fully run-in, and then brought back to 0 for testing. The
TCC was measured for two radial loads, over a range of rotational
speeds. The constant radial load, which is independent of the speed and
temperature, is applied to the roller bearing to study the effect of the
rotational speed on the bearing. Fig. 18 shows that the TCC increases
with the rotational speed, which is consistent with the conclusion
Fig. 18. TCC vs rotational speed.
15
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140
obtained by Refs. [53,57]. Moreover, the TCC increases with the radial
load applied on the roller bearing because the radial load leads to the
increase in the actual contact area.
4.5. Impact of lubrication
It is normal to have some lubricant such as grease. The TCC caused by
the lubricant film is then generated. Then the TCCs of the bearing with
and without lubrication were measured at 4000r/min to study the
impact of the lubrication on the TCC and oil-lubrication is used in the
test. The lubricant used in the experiments is the 4109 lubricant, and the
thermophysical properties are as follows. The viscosity at the room
temperature is 0.033 Pa s. The density at the room temperature is
970 kg/m3. The specific heat capacity is 1910 J/(kg.oC). The viscosity-
temperature coefficient is 0.032/oC. The pressure-viscosity coefficient
is 1.85 � 10 8/Pa. The thermal conductivity is 0.0966 W/(m.oC). It is
shown that the TCC of the static non-lubricated roller bearing is much
smaller than that of the lubricated bearings, seen in Fig. 19. The result is
consistent with the conclusion that the TCC can change significantly
once the lubrication is introduced into the system [58]. The significant
increase in TCC of the static lubricated roller bearing comparing to that
of the static non-lubricated roller bearing is attributed to the increase in
ball-to-race contact area due to the presence of the oil between the
contacts. In essence, the oil increases the thermal pathway, leading to
the increase in the TCC. For the static non-lubricated roller bearing, the
Fig. 19. TCC vs lubrication.
J. Liu et al.
balls are considered to be the most dominant heat carrier under the oil
lubrication condition, and the most dominant TCC is the contact area
between the ring and the ball according to the conclusion shown in Refs.
[52,58]. Similarly, for the roller bearing, the contact area between the
roller and bearing ring is the main cause for the existence of TCCs.
The TCC of the dynamic lubricated roller bearing is higher than that
of the static lubricated roller bearing according to Fig. 19, which is
consistent with the statement that the contact conductance is the sec­
ondary effect. Instead, the lubricant meniscus is the dominant heat
transfer mode. The large increase in TCC implies that the heat path
provided by the lubricant meniscus ultimately dominates, masking the
influence of the Hertzian contact area. While the TCC of static non-
lubricated bearings are driven by the size of the Hertzian contact el­
lipse, the masking of the Hertzian contact area by the meniscus explains
the minimal influence of radial loading upon the conductance of the oil-
lubricated bearing.
Overall, the TCC of the dynamic lubricated roller bearing is the
greatest, followed by the TCC of the static lubricated roller bearing. The
TCC of the dynamic lubricated roller bearing is the smallest. For the
static non-lubricated roller bearing, the TCC is mainly caused by the
contact conduction of the actual contact area. For the static lubricated
roller bearing, the TCC is the contact conductions of the actual contact
area and of the oil between the contacts. Moreover, the TCC caused by
the ball-to-race contact area due to the presence of the oil between the
contacts is much more significant than the TCC of the actual contact
area. For the dynamic lubricated roller bearing, the lubricant meniscus
is the dominant heat transfer mode. The TCC may be influenced by the
convection due to motion of oil. The motion of the oil at high speeds is
more obvious, and then more heat will be removed from rollers. If the
effect of the lubricant meniscus on the TCC is ignored, the TCC will be
decreased. But Fig. 19 shows that the TCC increases, which means that
the effect of the lubricant meniscus on the TCC cannot be ignored
anymore. Moreover, the increase in the TCC caused by the lubricant
meniscus is much greater than the decrease in the convection due to
motion of oil.
It is concluded that for the effect of the contact pressure, the fractal
dimension, and contact area static should be considered for non-
lubricated roller bearings because the contact conduction of the actual
contact area is the dominant heat transfer mode. For the static lubricated
roller bearing, the effect of the increase in the ball-to-race contact area
due to the presence of the oil between the contacts should be considered.
For the dynamic lubricated roller bearing, the effect of the lubricant
meniscus should be considered. The rotational speed is a necessary
condition for the formation of the lubricant meniscus, and the convec­
tion caused by the motion of oil is far less than that of the lubricant
meniscus in the experiments. But the phenomenon may not be fully
established. Future research should focus on the effect of the convection
due to motion of oil on the TCC to determine if there is a balance be­
tween the lubricant meniscus and the convection. Moreover, the TCC
modeling caused by the lubricant meniscus should be investigated with
reasonable theoretical and experimental methods. Besides, for static
non-lubricated roller bearings, static lubricated roller bearings, and
dynamic lubricated roller bearings, the effect of the radial load on the
TCC of the roller/ring interface should be investigated for the reasonable
design and installation of bearings.
4.6. Advantages and limitations
4.6.1. Advantages of modeling method
The main advantages of the TCC modeling method include the
following points.
(1) The first advantage of the proposed method is the realization of
the thermal contact conductance (TCC) modeling between two
cylindrical surfaces. The introduction of the effective contact
factor η makes it possible to predict the TCC between two rough
16
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140
cylindrical surfaces. Most of related studies focus on the TCC
between two rough surfaces without curvatures. But the cylin­
drical surfaces change the contact parameters, including the
actual contact area and contact load, which are closely related to
the TCC between two cylindrical surfaces. Then an effective
contact factor is introduced into the model to predict the TCC of
the roller/ring interface. It is important to realize that the dif­
ference in the surface form changes the asperity distribution.
According to Fig. 10, the change of the surface forms leads to the
change in the fractal contact area and contact load, which have a
direct effect on the TCC. The effective contact factor should be
considered for the contact between rough cylindrical surfaces,
which is the case for the contact between rollers and bearing
rings.
(2) The second advantage of the proposed method is its higher pre­
dictive accuracy in the TCC of the roller/bearing ring interface.
The predictive accuracy of the model is higher than that of
existing model. The classic single TCC model is used to predict the
TCC with single deformation mode. Then the multi-contact TCC
model is applicable to TCC prediction with elastic and plastic
deformations. But the deviation between the theoretical calcu­
lation results and experimental data is significant for both the
classic single TCC model and the multi-contact TCC model. The
higher accuracy of the TCC model attributes to the surface
characterization with the Cantor set theory and the fractal con­
tact model with the introduction of the effective contact factor.
4.6.2. Limitations of modeling method
The limitations of the modeling method of TCCs include the
following points.
(1) It is assumed that the roller bearing is stationary without lubri­
cant, and then the combined effect of the rotational speed and
lubrication on the TCC is not considered. But the lubricant fills
the gap between the roller and bearing ring in the practical
application. Then the conductance induced by the lubricant film
is generated, and it is not considered in the model. Moreover, it is
known from Sections 4.4 and Section 4.5 that the effect of the
lubrication on the conductance of the dynamic lubricated roller
bearing cannot be ignored anymore because it masks the effect of
the contact conductance of roller and ring. So far, the model can
only be used to predict the TCC when roller bearing is stationary
without lubricant, and then it is essential to establish the mass
transfer model for the dynamic lubricated roller to makes the
model more practical.
(2) The radiation and conduction are the primary heat transfer
modes in nature. In the study, the radiation and convection are
not significant comparing to the conduction for the bearing sys­
tem, and then the radiation and convection are ignored. The
ignorance leads to the deviation between the predicted TCC and
measured data.
(3) In the service process of bearings, the load usually is in one di­
rection and hence the contact is not uniform along the perimeter.
In the study, the contact is uniform along the perimeter of the
roller bearing to exclude the effect of the uneven load on the TCC,
which is slightly different from the working condition of the
bearings.
(4) The TCC model is established at the steady-state condition for the
roller bearings because thermal non-equilibrium state is limited
comparing to its service time. The measurement of the TCC is also
conducted under steady-state conditions. Then the effect of the
heat dissipation on the TCC is avoided. The avoidance of the heat
dissipation on the TCC makes the modeling of the TCC becomes
simpler.
J. Liu et al.
5. Conclusions
A TCC model of the cylindrical contact interface was established to
predict the TCC between rollers and bearing rings. A new surface
topography was constructed by the Cantor set theory and the structure
function was applied to identify the equivalent fractal parameters. Then
the fractal contact model was established by considering the surface
form and an effective contact factor was introduced to modify the con­
tact parameters. Finally, the discrete and continuous TCC models were
established based on the geometric analysis and mechanical modeling.
The main conclusions are obtained as follows.
(1) The modeling method is effective to predict the TCC between
cylindrical surfaces. For SS304, the maximum and average errors
between the predicted TCC and the measured data are 10.21%
and 8.14%, respectively. Moreover, the versatility of the
modeling method can be extended to general TCC predictions by
setting the effective contact factor as 1.
(2) The introduction of the effective contact factor is essential to
predict the TCC between cylindrical surfaces and the effective
contact factor can reflect the contact stress state between cylin­
drical surfaces. The effective contact factor is in the range of ð0;
1Þ and it increases with the contact radius. Moreover, it increases
with the contact radius and the effective contact factor of the
inner contact is greater than that of the outer contact. The TCC of
the roller/bearing ring interface can be accurately predicted
when the effective contact factor is considered and the TCC is
smaller than that when the effective contact factor is ignored
because the effective contact factor is smaller than 1.
(3) The TCC increases with the contact pressure because the critical
generation nc increases with the contact load. The smaller the
fractal dimension, the rougher is the surface, and then the smaller
the TCC will be. The TCCs between rollers and bearing rings in­
crease with the contact area. The Cantor set theory is effective to
construct a new surface topography of the isotropic machined
surface and the multiscale, self-similar, and fractal features of
rough topography can be reflected.
(4) For the practical utility, the combined effect of the rotational
speed and the lubrication on the TCC of the dynamic lubricated
roller bearing cannot be ignored anymore. It is revealed that the
TCC increases with the rotational speed. Moreover, the TCC of the
dynamic lubricated roller bearing is much greater than that of the
TCC of the static lubricated roller bearing and that of the static
non-lubricated roller bearing. The proposed TCC modeling
method is useful in the prediction of the TCC of the stationary
roller bearing without lubricant. Then the TCC model for the
static lubricated roller bearing and the TCC model for the static
non-lubricated roller bearing are the future research directions.
Declaration of competing interest
We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with
other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our
work; there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or
kind in any product or company that could be construed as influencing
the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foun­
dation of China (51905057), the Natural Science Foundation Project of
Chongqing, Chongqing Science and Technology Commission
(cstc2019jcyj-msxmX0050), and the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (2018CDXYJX0019).
17
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 147 (2020) 106140
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