An illustration of sliding contact at any constant speed on highly elastic half-spaces

A rigid smooth indentor slides at a constant speed on a compressibleisotropic neo-Hookean half-space that is subjected to pre-stressaligned with the surface and sliding direction. A dynamic steady-slidingsituation of plane strain is treated as the superposition ofcontact-triggered infinitesimal deformations superposed uponfinite deformations due to pre-stress. The neo-Hookean materialbehaves for small strains as a linear elastic solid with Poisson'sratio 1 : 4. Exact solutions are presented for both deformationsand, for a range of acceptable pre-stress values, the infinitesimalcomponent exhibits the typical non-isotropy induced by pre-stress,and several critical speeds. In view of the unilateral constraintsof contact, these speeds serve to define the sliding speed rangesfor which physically acceptable solutions arise. A Rayleighspeed is the upper bound for subsonic sliding, and transonicsliding can occur only at a single speed. For the generic parabolicindentor, contact zone traction continuity is lost at the zoneleading edge for trans- and supersonic sliding. For pre-stresslevels that fall outside the acceptable range, either a negativePoisson effect occurs, or a Rayleigh speed does not exist andthe unilateral constraints cannot be satisfied for any subsonicsliding speed. Received 15 March 2000. Revised 22 November 2000.