**1. Introduction**

Fretting phenomena arises when two bodies are in contact subjected to relative movement of small amplitude (0–300 μm), producing damage on the contact surface [1]. Since virtually all machines vibrate, fretting failure can occur in a variety of mechanical components (even the ones that are not intended to move), such as aircraft engine blade housings, ropes, flexible couplings, bearing housings and even orthopedic devices.

It has been reported that up to 50 variables might influence the magnitude and rate of the fretting process [2]; however, Drobomirski [3] identified the slip amplitude, the contact pressure

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and the coefficient of friction as the most influential ones. Different regimes can be determined depending on the slip amplitude, which is related to different failure types [4]:


Depending on the magnitude of stresses, fretting can cause catastrophic failure of mechanical components. It is noteworthy mentioning that fretting fatigue may reduce the lifetime of a component by half or even more, in comparison to plain fatigue [5].

Despite the considerable progress made in the understanding of fretting fatigue over the last decades, it is still one of the modern issues for industrial machinery [6]. Accordingly, there is an increasing interest in the use of the finite element method (FEM) to analyze fretting phenomena, since it provides data which currently cannot be obtained through experimental testing or analytical solutions. This chapter presents a general background and the state of the art of numerical simulation and modeling of fretting in terms of wear, fatigue and fracture.
