Contact stresses in interference-fit joints with application to sugar-mill roller assemblies.

Abstract

The interference-fit joint is widely used in machine design to connect two cylindrical machine elements. Its popularity comes from the simplicity of the assembly and the low cost of the production process. Even so, no study has examined the boundary non-linearities in the assembly of these joints. Moreover, the contact stresses and the stress concentration factors in interference-fit joints under torsional loads have not yet been examined in detail. In addition, the interface stresses and stress concentration factors in interference-fit joints subjected to bending loads have not been approached theoretically before. The sugar-mill roller is one of the oldest and most important examples of the interference-fit joints. The frequent fatigue failure of the sugar-mill rollers under reversed bending causes costly emergency line-shut downs. The versatility of the finite element method and the capability of the point-matching technique in handling contact problems have been combined, in the present work, to produce a surface-matching technique. It has been found that the complete-cohesion contact assumption may be acceptable for coefficients of friction ≥ 0.2, which is the case for most of the normally machined surfaces. An approach combining the semi-inverse displacement finite element method and the surface-matching technique has been developed to perform the torsional analysis. It has been found that the governing non-dimensional quantities are the ratio of the cohesion-length to the interface-length and the coefficient of friction divided by the load-level. The load-level is the ratio between the angle of twist of the shaft per unit length when the torque acts on the shaft alone and the amount of the diametral interference divided by the shaft diameter. A finite element model, using 8-noded solid elements together with linear interface elements, has been employed to locate the cohesion and slippage-zones in the sugar-mill roller under bending. The contact pressure increases along the compression side and decreases along the tension side. On the contrary, the interface shear decreases along the compression side due to bending and increases along the tension side. Subsequently, a larger slippage-length has been detected along the tension side.