Boussinesq indentation of a transversely isotropic half-space reinforced by a buried inextensible membrane

The normal indentation of a rigid circular disk into the surface of a transversely isotropic half-space reinforced by a buried inextensible thin film is addressed. By virtue of a displacement potential function and the Hankel transform, the governing equations of this axisymmetric mixed boundary value problem are represented as a dual integral equation, which is subsequently reduced to a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. Two important results of the contact stress distribution beneath the disk region as well as the equivalent stiffness of the system are expressed in terms of the solution of the Fredholm integral equation. When the membrane is located on the surface or at the remote boundary, exact closed-form solutions are presented. For the limiting case of an isotropic half-space the results are verified with those available in the literature. As a special case, the elastic fields of a reinforced transversely isotropic half-space under the action of surface axisymmetric patch loads are also given. The effects of anisotropy, embedment depth of the membrane, and material incompressibility on both the contact stress and the normal stiffness factor are depicted in some plots.