Interaction of a rigid punch and a circular plate with a fixed side and a stress-free face

The axisymmetric contact problem of a rigid punch indentation into an elastic circular plate with a fixed side and a stress-free face is considered. The problem is solved by a method developed for finite bodies which is based on the properties of a biorthogonal system of vector functions. The problem is reduced to a Volterra integral equation (IE) of the first kind for the contract pressure function and to a system of two Volterra IE of the first kind for functions describing the derivative of the displacement of the plate upper surface outside the punch and the normal (or tangential) stress on the plate lower fixed surface. The last two functions are sought as the sum of a trigonometric series and a power-law function with a root singularity. The obtained ill-conditioned systems of linear algebraic equations are regularized by introducing small parameters and have a stable solution. A method for solving the Volterra IE is given. The contact pressure functions, the normal and tangential stresses on the plate fixed surface, and the dimensionless indentation force are found. Several examples of a plane punch computation are given.