Administration of the project
Contact mechanics challenge results: a follow up discussion
In 2015 Prof. Martin Müser of Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany initiated a contact mechanics challenge with a goal to provide tribologists with benchmarks to decide which method is the most appropriate for a particular problem. Tribology community was invited to challenge their models and compare with the results of each other. The posed problem was successfully solved with a variety of models and theories. Twelve groups from around the World submitted their contributions and the results were published in early 2017.
Recently, a critical comment was raised by Professor Michelle Ciavarella regarding the conditions defined for the simulation and reproducibility of the results obtained by Persson’s theory. According to Professor Ciavarella, it was not possible to reproduce the results based on the available information as he explains in the comment and raises further questions regarding the quantitative contact mechanics and tribology (see the details here).
In the extensive response to the comment, Professor Müser revealed in more details some of the aspects of the contact mechanics challenge and simulation approach. Further remarks regarding the Persson’s theory were presented. Additional statements on the approximation of the surfaces and contact mechanics aspects were given.
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My results can be reproduced by a lot of scientists, e.g., Carbone and coworkers, Mueser, Scaraggi, and some Chinese scientists! Too bad Ciavarella is not able to perform the integrals but this reflect his ability as scientist rather than complexity of the theory (the integrals are not hard to perform). In any case I would have helped him if he had asked me but he prefer to publish his incorrect results!