Plastic Deformations of Measured Object Surface in Contact with Undeformable Surface of Measuring Tool

Measuring errors caused by deformation (flattening) of a measured object appear under the influence of pressure force and weight of the measured object. Plastic strain, arising at the contact of a measured object and an undeformable contact tip of a measuring device, can be calculated by applying the Hertz plastic solution and the hypothesis of plastic strain. In a small area of contact between two bodies pressing against one another with force F, there appears the so-called contact stress. It can sometime reach very high values, exceeding the yield point, even when the contact pressure is relatively small. In the present work, the authors describe a theoretical solution to the problem of plastic strain between two bodies. The derived relationships enable to calculate force F during measurements of a deformable object by means of an instrument with an undeformable, spherical measuring tip. By applying the τ_max hypothesis, a solution was obtained for the force F in an inexplicit form. The theoretical solution was verified with the digital simulation and experimental measurement. With the FEM method, the limit length gage was modeled in interaction with the measured shaft of a diameter d larger than the nominal one of Δl value.