Abstract: A new surface description model for elastic-plastic asperity contact problems is presented to remove the nodes, which have little influence for the description of the surface profile. Element-free Galerkin-finite element (EFG-FE) coupling method is utilized to fit the requirement of irregular surface node arrangement when some of the surface nodes are removed because of its flexibility in domain discretization and versatility in node arrangements. The results express that the computing time can be dramatically reduced to about 50% of original computing time in the example studied when the relative errors are about 5%. Some factors, which may influence the elastic-plastic contact of adaptive rough surfaces, are inves-tigated and discussed.

Key words: Adaptive, Coupling method, Elastic-plastic contact, Element-free Galerking-finite element (EFG-FE), Rough surface, Drive feed system, Low-speed creeping, Nonlinear friction