Tangential Loading of General Three-Dimensional Contacts

A general three-dimensional contact, between elastically similar half-spaces, is considered. With a fixed normal load, we consider a pure relative tangential translation between the two bodies. We show that, for the case of negligible Poisson’s ratio, an exact solution is given by a single component of shearing traction, in the direction of loading. It is well known that, for full sliding conditions, the tangential force must be applied through the center of the pressure distribution. Instead, for a full stick case the tangential force must be applied through the center of the pressure distribution under a rigid flat indenter whose planform is the contact area of the problem under consideration. Finally, for finite friction a partial slip regime has to be introduced. It is shown that this problem corresponds to a difference between the actual normal contact problem, and a corrective problem corresponding to a lower load, but with same rotation of the actual normal indentation. Therefore for a pure translation to occur in the partial slip regime, the point of application of the tangential load must follow the center of the “difference” pressure. The latter also provides a complete solution of the partial slip problem. In particular, the general solution in quadrature is given for the axisymmetric case, where it is also possible to take into account of the effect of Poisson’s ratio, as shown in the Appendix.