Steady sliding frictional contact problem for a 2d elastic half-space with a discontinuous friction coefficient and related stress singularities

The steady sliding frictional contact problem between a moving rigid indentor of arbitrary shape and an isotropic homogeneous elastic half-space in plane strain is extensively analysed. The case where the friction coefficient is a step function (with respect to the space variable), that is, where there are jumps in the friction coefficient, is considered. The problem is put under the form of a variational inequality which is proved to always have a solution which, in addition, is unique in some cases. The solutions exhibit different kinds of universal singularities that are explicitly given. In particular, it is shown that the nature of the universal stress singularity at a jump of the friction coefficient is different depending on the sign of the jump.     

摩擦约束塑性力学变分不等原理的半反推法

带摩擦约束的弹塑性接触问题,由于摩擦约束条件是一种判别性的条件,它的变分问题的逆问题的研究比较困难。本文对弹塑性接触力学中的变分不等问题的逆问题进行了研究,改进了半反推法并将其应用到弹塑性变分不等原理的研究中,导出了摩擦约束弹塑性增量广义变分不等原理中的能量泛函,消除了用拉氏乘子法可能产生的临界变分现象,在证明中,巧妙地处理了增量表示的接触摩擦边界条件,避免了使用非线性泛函分析和凸分析,简化了证明。     

Hertzian fracture at unloading

Hertzian fracture through indentation of flat float glass specimens by steel balls has been examined experimentally. Initiation of cone cracks has been observed and failure loads together with contact and fracture radii determined at monotonically increasing load but also during unloading phases. Contact of dissimilar elastic solids under decreasing load may cause crack inception triggered by finite interface friction and accordingly the coefficient of friction was determined by two different methods. In order to make relevant predictions of experimental findings, a robust computational procedure has been developed to determine global and local field values in particular at unloading at finite friction. It was found that at continued loading it is possible to specify in advance how the contact domain divides into invariant regions of stick and slip. The maximum tensile stress was found to occur at the free surface just outside the contact contour, the relative distance depending on the different elastic compliance properties and the coefficient of friction. In contrast, at unloading invariance properties are lost and stick/slip regions proved to be severely history dependant and in particular with an opposed frictional shear stress at the contact boundary region. This causes an increase of the maximum tensile stress at the contour under progressive unloading. Predictions of loads to cause crack initiation during full cycles were made based on a critical stress fracture criterion and proved to be favourable as compared to the experimental results.     

High speed indentation of an elastic half-space by conical or wedge-shaped indentors

Self-similar problems of indentation of an elastic half-space by rigid cones or wedges are solved, assuming perfect adhesion, when the velocity of indentation is large enough for the area of contact to spread faster than the speed of P-waves. In contrast to the earlier study of the wholly subsonic case [2], the present problems can be solved in closed form without approximation. It emerges, too, that the no slip condition would be satisfied for a range of values of a finite coefficient of friction, in contrast to the situation in [2], where any finite friction is bound to allow some slip. A variety of wave fronts exist in the present problems and all of their amplitudes are found explicitly and discussed.School of Mathematics, University of Bath     

Existence results for unilateral contact problem with friction of thermo-electro-elasticity

This work studies a mathematical model describing the static process of contact between a piezoelectric body and a thermally-electrically conductive foundation. The behavior of the material is modeled with a thermo-electro-elastic constitutive law. The contact is described by Signorini's conditions and Tresca's friction law including the electrical and thermal conductivity conditions. A variational formulation of the model in the form of a coupled system for displacements, electric potential, and temperature is de- rived. Existence and uniqueness of the solution are proved using the results of variational inequalities and a fixed point theorem.     

接触问题的互补变分原理及非线性互补模型

给出了接触问题的互补虚功原理,互补能量原理及变分不等式等变分提法,并讨论了三类提法的关系。其此建立了有限维非线性互补模型并给出解的存在唯一性定理。文中还阐明了有,无摩擦接触问题之间以及二维和三维有摩擦接触问题之间的本质区别。     

Development of a solution method for frictional contact problems with complex loading

In this work, solution methods for frictional contact problems are extended to the case of moving punches and to the external loading history-dependent system states. To solve the frictional contact problems in the contact area, an iterative method is developed and implemented. Solutions of two-dimensional problems are constructed using the boundary element method. Numerical analysis is aimed at the quantitative study of effects such as the interaction of contact pressure and friction forces, estimates of the friction force differences due to the differences in the choice of local basis for the calculation of normal pressure and friction forces, and evaluation of the effects of complex loading (rotation of the rigid punch after its preliminary penetration into the solid). We find that, for the same definition of the friction force, different initial approximations lead to the same solution. At the same time, the friction forces defined either as projections onto the common tangent plane or as projections onto the plane tangent to the punch can differ quite substantially. Similar conclusions are derived for the solutions corresponding to single or multiple loading steps. The work relies on the variational principle for the solution of contact problems and numerical algorithms developed for the problems with one-sided constraints. The variational principle was first applied by Signorini [1] to the determination of the stress-strain state in a linearly deformed body in a rigid smooth shell. The modern view of the problem and its generalizations to the frictional problems and some other problems involving unilateral constraints in given in the monograph [2]. Finite difference and finite element methods in application to the problems with unilateral constraints are described in [3]. Analytical solution methods are developed in the monographs [4–6].     

Indentation of an Elastic Half-space by a Rigid Flat Punch as a Model Problem for Analysing Contact Problems with Coulomb Friction

One important problem which still remains to be solved today is the uniqueness of the solution of contact problems in linearized elastostatics with small Coulomb friction. This difficult question is addressed here in the case of the indentation of a two-dimensional elastic half-space by a rigid flat punch of finite width, which has been previously studied by Spence in Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 73, 249–268 (1973). It is proved that all the solutions have the same simple structure, involving active contact everywhere below the punch and a sticking interval surrounded by two inward slipping intervals. All these solutions show the same local asymptotics for surface traction and displacement at a border between a sticking and a slipping zone. These asymptotics describe (soft) singularities, which are universal (they hold with any geometry) and are explicitly given. It is also proved that in cases where the friction coefficient is small enough, the sticking intervals present in two distinct solutions, if two distinct solutions exist, cannot overlap.     

Torsional contact of an elastic flat-ended cylinder

Torsion of a flat-ended elastic bar pressed onto an elastically similar half-space and subject to torsion, in the presence of friction, is used as a vehicle to study complete contact subject to in-plane and anti-plane shearing forces. It is shown that, below a critical coefficient of friction, slip starts at the edge and progress inwards as the torsion is increased, whereas above this critical value slip starts a little way in from the edge and progress both inwards and outwards. Care is taken to preserve frictional orthogonality, with slip modelled as a piecewise-linear distribution of edge and screw dislocations. The solutions may be applied to any complete contact edge, as the problem is solved within the context of a Williams eigenexpansion.     

Block pivot methods for solving frictional contact problems

Based on elementary group theory, the block pivot methods for solving two-dimensional elastic frictional contact problems are presented in this paper. It is proved that the algorithms converge within a finite number of steps when the friction coefficient is “relative small”. Unlike most mathematical programming methods for contact problems, the block pivot methods permit multiple exchanges of basic and nonbasic variables. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Multiple-zone sliding contact with friction on an anisotropic thermoelastic half-space

The paper studies a class of multiple-zone sliding contact problems. This class is general enough to include frictional and thermal effects, and anisotropic response of the indented material. In particular, a rigid die (indenter) slides with Coulomb friction and at constant speed over the surface of a deformable and conducting body in the form of a 2D half-space. The body is assumed to behave as a thermoelastic transversely isotropic material. Thermoelasticity of the Green–Lindsay type is assumed to govern. The solution method is based on integral transforms and singular integral equations. First, an exact transform solution for the auxiliary problem of multiple-zone (integer n > 1) surface tractions is obtained. Then, an asymptotic form for this auxiliary problem is extracted. This form can be inverted analytically, and the result applied to sliding contacts with multiple zones. For illustration, detailed calculations are provided for the case of two (n = 2) contact zones. The solution yields the contact zone width and location in terms of sliding speed, friction, die profile, and also the force exerted. Calculations for the hexagonal material zinc illustrate effects of speed, friction and line of action of the die force on relative contact zone size, location of maximal values for the temperature and the compressive stress, and the maximum temperature for a given maximum stress. Finally, from our general results, a single contact zone solution follows as a simple limit.     

Instability of thermoelastic contact for two half-planes sliding out-of-plane with contact resistance and frictional heating

Thermoelastic contact is known to show instabilities when the heat transmitted across the interface depends on the pressure, either because of a pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance R(p) or because of frictional heating due to the product of friction coefficient, speed, and pressure, fVp. Recently, the combined effect of pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance and frictional heating has been studied in the context of simple rod models or for a more realistic elastic conducting half-plane sliding against a rigid perfect conductor “wall”. Because R(p) introduces a non-linearity even in full contact, the “critical speed” for the uniform pressure solution to be unstable depends not just on material properties, and geometry, but also on the heat flux and on pressure.Here, the case of two different elastic and conducting half-planes is studied, and frictional heating is shown to produce significant effects on the stability boundaries with respect to the Zhang and Barber (J. Appl. Mech. 57 (1990) 365) corresponding case with no sliding. In particular, frictional heating makes instability possible for a larger range of prescribed temperature drop at the interface including, at sufficiently high speeds, the region of opposite sign of that giving instability in the corresponding static case. The effect of frictional heating is particularly relevant for one material combinations of the Zhang and Barber (J. Appl. Mech. 57 (1990) 365) classification (denominated class b here), as above a certain critical speed, the system is unstable regardless of temperature drop at the interface.Finally, if the system has a prescribed heat flow into one of the materials, the results are similar, except that frictional heating may also become a stabilizing effect, if the resistance function and the material properties satisfy a certain condition.     

Optimal prestress of structures with frictional unilateral contact interfaces

Summary The problem of optimal prestress stabilization of elastic structures with frictional contact interfaces subject to static loads is studied in this paper. A linear elastic structure with given unilateral contact at frictional interfaces is considered. The prestressing control is modelled by the pin-load method. The static problem is formulated as a nonsymmetric variational inequality. The goal of the optimal control design is closing of the unilateral contact joints as well as minimization of the friction induced slips with a minimum effort. The resulting optimal control problem is nonsmooth and nonconvex, as it concerns the control of structures governed by variational inequalities. Appropriate techniques of nonsmooth analysis are used for its numerical solution. Effective computer realization and integration into existing finite element software is facilitated by appropriate static condensation techniques, which are outlined in the paper. Numerical examples illustrate the theory.     

Response of frictional contact problems in thermo-rheologically complex structures

This paper presents a comprehensive computational model for predicting the nonlinear response of frictional viscoelastic contact systems under thermo-mechanical loading and experience geometrical nonlinearity. The nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive model is expressed by an integral form of a creep function, whose elastic and time-dependent properties change with stresses and temperatures. The thermo-viscoelastic behavior of the contacting bodies is assumed to follow a class of thermo-rheologically complex materials. An incremental-recursive formula for solving the nonlinear viscoelastic integral equation is derived. Such formula necessitates data storage only from the previous time step. The contact problem as a variational inequality constrained model is handled using the Lagrange multiplier method for exact satisfaction of the inequality contact constraints. A local nonlinear friction law is adopted to model friction at the contact interface. The material and geometrical nonlinearities are modeled in the framework of the total Lagrangian formulation. The developed model is verified using available benchmarks. The effectiveness and accuracy of the developed computational model is validated by solving two thermo-mechanical contact problems with different natures. Moreover, obtained results show that the mechanical properties and the class of thermo-rheological behavior of the contacting bodies as well as the coefficient of friction have significant effects on the contact response of nonlinear thermo-viscoelastic materials.     

Analysis of a quasistatic contact problem with adhesion and nonlocal friction for viscoelastic materials

A mathematical model is established to describe a contact problem between a deformable body and a foundation. The contact is bilateral and modelled with a nonlocal friction law, in which adhesion is taken into account. Evolution of the bonding field is described by a first-order differential equation. The materials behavior is modelled with a nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive law. A variational formulation of the mechanical problem is derived, and the existence and uniqueness of the weak solution can be proven if the coefficient of friction is sufficiently small. The proof is based on arguments of time-dependent variational inequalities, differential equations, and the Banach fixed-point theorem.     

On the sliding instabilities at rough surfaces

In this paper, the onset of sliding between two elastic half-spaces in contact, subjected to a tangential force, is studied within the framework of critical phenomena. First, it is shown that the contact domain between two rough surfaces is a lacunar set and that the distribution of contact stresses is multifractal. By applying an increasing tangential force, under constant normal load, the so-called regime of partial-slip comes into play. However, the continuous and smooth transition to full sliding, predicted by the classical Cattaneo-Mindlin theory, is not confirmed by the experiments, which show marked frictional instabilities. A numerical multi-scale procedure is proposed, taking into account the redistribution of stress, consequent to partial-slip, among the contact areas at all scales. It is shown that the lacunarity of the contact domain delays the onset of instability, when compared to compact Euclidean domains. Independently of the assumptions made for the frictional behaviour at the scale of the asperities (Coulomb friction for meso-scale asperities, adhesion for micro-scales), renormalization permits the critical value of the tangential force which provides the instability to be found. Moreover, the multifractal analysis of the domains where the shear resistance is activated captures the size-scale effects on the friction coefficient, currently evidenced by the experiments.     

Wave induced sliding at the interface between a layered elastic medium and a half-space

The sliding interface between an unrestrained elastic half-space and a grounded layered half-space excited by an incident harmonic wave is investigated. The problem is formulated considering various possible boundary conditions and boundary inequalities at the sliding interface. The Coulomb friction model without distinction between the static and kinetic coefficients of friction is considered to govern the sliding condition. Three possible bands at the interface, namely slip, stick, and separation, are considered. The interface is assumed to be preloaded under normal and shear stresses. The solution is developed by modifying the problem of welded interface, which then is reduced to a set of algebraic equations. The effects of the incident angle, layer thickness, friction coefficient and externally applied stresses on the drift velocity of the unrestrained half-space are studied numerically for a pair of materials. It is shown that the sliding interface, and hence the drift velocity of unrestrained half-space is noticeably influenced by the layered medium. These results are expected to be useful for the development of a new kind of ultrasonic drive in future.     

Mechanics of advancing pin-loaded contacts with friction

This paper considers finite friction contact problems involving an elastic pin and an infinite elastic plate with a circular hole. Using a suitable class of Green's functions, the singular integral equations governing a very general class of conforming contact problems are formulated. In particular, remote plate stresses, pin loads, moments and distributed loading of the pin by conservative body forces are considered. Numerical solutions are presented for different partial slip load cases. In monotonic loading, the dependence of the tractions on the coefficient of friction is strongest when the contact is highly conforming. For less conforming contacts, the tractions are insensitive to an increase in the value of the friction coefficient above a certain threshold. The contact size and peak pressure in monotonic loading are only weakly dependent on the pin load distribution, with center loads leading to slightly higher peak pressure and lower peak shear than distributed loads. In contrast to half-plane cylinder fretting contacts, fretting behavior is quite different depending on whether or not the pin is allowed to rotate freely. If pin rotation is disallowed, the fretting tractions resemble half-plane fretting tractions in the weakly conforming regime but the contact resists sliding in the strongly conforming regime. If pin rotation is allowed, the shear traction behavior resembles planar rolling contacts in that one slip zone is dominant and the peak shear occurs at its edge. In this case, the effects of material dissimilarity in the strongly conforming regime are only secondary and the contact never goes into sliding. Fretting tractions in the forward and reversed load states show shape asymmetry, which persists with continued load cycling. Finally, the governing integro-differential equation for full sliding is derived; in the limiting case of no friction, the same equation governs contacts with center loading and uniform body force loading, resulting in identical pressures when their resultants are equal.     

Nonlinear dynamics of an elastic rod with frictional impact

A model is presented for the impact with friction of a flexible body in translation and rotation. This model consists of a system of nonlinear differential equations which considers the multiple collisions as well as frictional effects at the contacting end, and allows one to predict the rigid and elastic body motion after the impact. The kinetic energy is derived by utilizing a generalized velocity field theory for elastic solids. The model uses a dry coefficient of friction and a nonlinear contact force. We introduce a finite number of vibrational modes to take into account the vibrational behavior of the body during impact. The vibrations, the multiple collisions, and the angle of incidence angle, are found to be important factors for the kinematics of frictional impact. Analytical and experimental results were compared to establish the accuracy of the model.     

Influence of frictional anisotropy on contacting surfaces during loading/unloading cycles

This paper presents numerical investigations on the loading and unloading of a three-dimensional body in frictional contact with a rigid foundation. The evolution of the sliding process during loading/unloading cycles is analyzed. The important case of anisotropy is examined along with the effect of the sliding rule. The solution algorithm is based on a variational inequality which combine the contact problem and the frictional problem. The numerical results of the punch problem show the hysteretic and irreversible behavior occurring when friction is anisotropic.