A discussion on the capability of X-ray computed tomography for contact mechanics investigations

Abstract The three-dimensional gap distribution and area of true contact significantly affect sealing performance and tribological properties between rough surfaces. Current experimental approaches are limited in their ability to predict the evolution of the gap distribution and real contact area on assembled rough interfaces, particularly on non-transparent surfaces. In our previous study [1], we presented a X-ray computed tomography method to obtain these parameters between non-transparent assembled rough interfaces experimentally. In this study, contacts of higher complexity than in our previous work are studied and accuracy as well as limitations of the experimental method are discussed. Additionally, the experimental procedure and data-processing methods are detailed to help other researchers reproduce this work.