Author(s)

Gang Zhao ¹, Jianyu Li ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China

Corresponding Author

Jianyu Li

ABSTRACT

The microscopic morphological characteristics of rough surfaces significantly influence Thermal Contact Resistance (TCR), exhibiting strong randomness and uncertainty at the micro-nano scale. This paper introduces a novel method for calculating thermal contact resistance that integrates three-dimensional topography data with stochastic modeling techniques. Initially, a 3D profilometer is employed to acquire the original topography data of a limited sample's rough surface, which serves as the statistical benchmark for modeling. To address the challenges of high computational complexity and the difficulty in accurately characterizing the correlation function in traditional three-dimensional random field modeling, the principle of maximum entropy, as expanded by Karhunen-Loeve(K-L), is utilized for modeling. This approach reconstructs a three-dimensional topography random field model characterized by high spatial correlation and statistical consistency. Subsequently, the Stochastic Finite Element Method (SFEM) is applied to numerically simulate the thermal contact problem based on the generated random morphology model, yielding the probability distribution and statistical evolution of the thermal contact resistance. Finally, the proposed method is validated by constructing an experimental platform for measuring thermal contact resistance. The research findings indicate that the method presented herein effectively captures the impact of random fluctuations in three-dimensional morphology on thermal contact resistance, offering an efficient and accurate approach for the quantitative evaluation and uncertainty analysis of the heat transfer performance of rough surfaces.

KEYWORDS

Rough Surface, Thermal Contact Resistance, Random Field Modeling Karhunen-Loeve Expansion, maximum entropy principle, Stochastic Finite Element

CITE THIS PAPER

Gang Zhao, Jianyu Li. Research on the Calculation Method of Thermal Contact Resistance of Rough Surfaces Based on Three-Dimensional Topography Measurement and Stochastic Modeling. Journal of Engineering Mechanics and Machinery (2026). Vol. 11, No. 1, 133-146. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jemm.2026.110113.

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