Study of half-space elastic contact problems by caustics

The optical method of caustics has been successfully applied to several two dimensional problems of elasticity. Up to now, no complicated three dimensional problems of elasticity have ever been treated by this method. In this paper, the experimental technique of caustics is developed, the caustics are obtained by annealing the stress-frozen epoxy slices. In applying this technique to Boussinesq's problem of a normal force and Cerruti's problem of a tangential force on the plane surface of a half-space, the experimentally obtained caustics for these problems are seen to be in satisfactory agreement with the corresponding theoretical forms. The treatment of the rather complicated three dimensional elasticity problems, including crack problems, by the author's method is also possible.