Sliding Contact with Friction at Arbitrary Constant Speeds on a Pre-Stressed Highly Elastic Half-Space

Abstract

Resisted by Coulomb friction, a rigid indentor slides at a constant arbitrary speed on a generalized neo-Hookean half-space under pre-stress. A dynamic steady-state situation in plane strain is assumed, and is treated as the superposition of contact-triggered infinitesimal deformations upon finite deformations due to pre-stress.

Exact solutions are presented for both deformations, and the infinitesimal component exhibits the anisotropy typically induced by pre-stress, and wave speeds that are sensitive to pre-stress. In view of the unilateral constraints of contact, these and other critical speeds define the sliding speed ranges for physically-acceptable solutions. In particular, a Rayleigh speed is the upper bound for subsonic sliding. Solutions are further constrained by the unilateral requirement that contact zone shear must oppose indentor/half-space slip.

The generic parabolic indentor is used for illustration, and it is found that traction continuity at the contact zone leading edge is lost for supersonic sliding and at the single sliding speed allowed in the frictionless limit in the trans-sonic range.

A range of acceptable pre-stresses is also identified; for pre-stresses that lie out of range, either a negative Poisson effect occurs, or the Rayleigh wave disappears, thereby precluding sliding in the subsonic range.