Editorial
Guest Editorial: Special Issue “Axisymmetry in
Mechanical Engineering”
Emanuel Willert
Institute of Applied Mechanics, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected]; Tel.: +49 30 314 21494
Axisymmetric (or almost axisymmetric) systems are ever-present in mechanical en-
gineering. Axial symmetry enables free rotation, rolling and avoids field singularities at
sharp corners. Spheres minimize the ratio of surface area to volume. Rotational symmetry
(inherent to the system or enforced externally by the modelling) significantly simplifies
the exact or numerical analysis of a model or, in some cases, only allows it in the first
place. This list could go on; in fact, registering all the properties and applications of ax-
isymmetry in technical or biotechnological systems would be quite an overwhelming task.
The topic of this Special Issue is thus very broad and, at the same time, very specific.
Broad, because axisymmetry is ubiquitous in mechanical engineering, and specific, be-
cause it is a very particular mathematical and/or physical concept. This apparent disparity
of thematic broadness and narrowness adds a special charm to the Special Issue, as the
readers might discover similar specific methods and techniques in very different contexts,
and apply them to yet again very different classes of problems—which has always been
one of the main propellers of scientific discovery.
This Special Issue consists of five original research articles and one correction.
It opens with the original research paper “A Simple Semi-Analytic Contact Mechanical
Model for Tangential and Torsional Fretting Wear of Axisymmetric Contacts” [1]. In this
paper, the rotational symmetry of the problem allows for an asymptotic closed-form so-
lution of the contact problem in each fretting oscillating cycle if the wear process is slow
compared to the oscillation. In the case of wear laws, which explicitly relate the local wear
intensities to contact stresses and relative surface displacements, this leads to a simple
integro-differential equation for the wear contact problem. The model can be extended to
incorporate the analysis of subsurface stress fields and associated initiation of fatigue
Citation: Willert, E. Guest Editorial:
Special Issue “Axisymmetry in
cracks.
Mechanical Engineering”. Symmetry
In the paper “Coaxiality Optimization Analysis of Plastic Injection Molded Barrel of
2023, 15, 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/ Bilateral Telecentric Lens” [2] the authors study the optimization of process parameters
sym15010174 for the injection moulding of cylindrical plastic lens barrels for bilateral telecentric lenses,
based on the Taguchi method.
Received: 3 January 2023 The original research article “An Approximate Solution for the Contact Problem of
Accepted: 4 January 2023 Profiles Slightly Deviating from Axial Symmetry” [3] provides an asymptotic closed-form
Published: 6 January 2023 solution for the normal contact problem of convex profiles that are almost axisymmetric.
Thereby, the term “almost axisymmetric” also applies to profiles which one would not
immediately associate with rotational symmetry, e.g., a pyramid with a square base. In
Copyright: © 2023 by the author. Li- this sense, the presented solution can be understood as a general (asymptotic) solution for
censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. arbitrary convex contact profiles.
This article is an open access article Another important contact mechanical problem is studied in the research paper “A
distributed under the terms and con- Comparison of General Solutions to the Non-Axisymmetric Frictionless Contact Problem
ditions of the Creative Commons At- with a Circular Area of Contact: When the Symmetry Does Not Matter” [4]. In the paper,
tribution (CC BY) license (https://cre- the contact area is assumed to be fixed and circular, e.g., by using a cylindrical rigid punch
ativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
for the indentation procedure, but the profile of the punch is arbitrary. Thus, one might
Symmetry 2023, 15, 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15010174 www.mdpi.com/journal/symmetry
Symmetry 2023, 15, 174 2 of 2
say, that the contact problem for arbitrary convex profiles is “tackled from another side”
through the lens of axial symmetry. The paper presents a deep comparative review of
known closed-form and series solutions for the described contact problem and gives novel
results for the pressure in the contact centre, as well as for the stress intensity factor at the
contact boundary, which, among others, is important for the corresponding adhesive
problem.
This Special Issue closes with the original research article “Using Cylindrical and
Spherical Symmetries in Numerical Simulations of Quasi-Infinite Mechanical Systems”
[5]. In this article, rotational symmetry is used as a tool to effectively remove simulation
space boundaries—and, therefore, the corresponding artificial boundary effects—for the
efficient numerical simulation of long-range interactions in general discrete periodic sys-
tems. Specifically, the mantle of a cylinder has no boundaries in the circumferential direc-
tion, while the surface of a sphere is boundary-free in all angular directions. As a very
interesting example, the authors consider the tectonic dynamics of the earth’s continents.
Finally, the correction [6] remediates misprints in the aforementioned original publi-
cation [3].
The authors who contributed to the Special Issue and the Guest Editor are hopeful
that the published research here will facilitate a better understanding of the challenges
and opportunities connected to axial (or other classes of) symmetry in different theoretical
or applied branches of mechanical engineering.
Funding: This research was funded by the German Research Foundation under the project number
PO 810/66-1.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
1. Willert, E. A Simple Semi-Analytic Contact Mechanical Model for Tangential and Torsional Fretting Wear of Axisymmetric
Contacts. Symmetry 2021, 13, 1582.
2. Lin, C.-M.; Chen, Y.-J. Coaxiality Optimization Analysis of Plastic Injection Molded Barrel of Bilateral Telecentric Lens. Sym-
metry 2022, 14, 200.
3. Popov, V.L. An Approximate Solution for the Contact Problem of Profiles Slightly Deviating from Axial Symmetry. Symmetry
2022, 14, 390.
4. Argatov, I.I. A Comparison of General Solutions to the Non-Axisymmetric Frictionless Contact Problem with a Circular Area
of Contact: When the Symmetry Does Not Matter. Symmetry 2022, 14, 1083.
5. Filippov, A.E.; Popov, V.L. Using Cylindrical and Spherical Symmetries in Numerical Simulations of Quasi-Infinite Mechanical
Systems. Symmetry 2022, 14, 1557.
6. Popov, V.L. Correction: Popov, V.L. An Approximate Solution for the Contact Problem of Profiles Slightly Deviating from Axial
Symmetry. Symmetry 2022, 14, 390. Symmetry 2022, 14, 2108.
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