Tangential contacts of three-dimensional power-law graded elastic solids: A general theory and application to partial slip

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive theory for tangential contact problems involving three-dimensional power-law graded elastic solids, providing analytical solutions that improve accuracy over approximate methods, with applications to partial slip regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a general analytical framework for tangential contact of graded elastic solids, including non-axisymmetric displacements and energy dissipation, extending previous approximate approaches.

Findings

Analytical solutions include non-axisymmetric tangential displacements.

Results agree well with numerical computations in homogeneous cases.

Material gradient and Poisson's ratio significantly affect energy dissipation.

Abstract

A rigorous theory for solving tangential contacts between three-dimensional power-law graded elastic solids of arbitrary geometry is presented. For multiple contacts such as those occurring between two nominally flat but rough half-spaces, the well-known Ciavarella-J\"ager theorem is established accompanied by a discussion of tangential coupling. Nevertheless, the focus of the work is on axisymmetric single contacts under arbitrary unidirectional tangential loading, for which closed-form analytical solutions are derived based on the Mossakovskii-J\"ager procedure. In comparison to the results of common approximate methods, the solutions include the non-axisymmetric components of tangential displacements, which are indispensable for the accurate determination of the relative slip components and thus the surface density of frictional energy dissipation in the partial slip regime. Although a simplified approach is used for the calculation of the dissipated energy density, the results in the limiting case of homogeneous material are in excellent agreement with those from a full numerical computation. As an application example, the complete solutions for the tangential contact of parabolically shaped power-law graded elastic solids in the partial slip regime are derived and the influence of the material gradient as well as Poisson's ratio on the surface density of dissipated energy is investigated.