Numerical Analysis of Partial Slip Contact under a Tangential Force and a Twisting Moment

A three-dimensional elastic contact problem has been investigated in this article with the emphasis on analysis of the partial slip phenomenon which occurs at certain areas in nominal contact zone when the local shear tractions exceed the limit specified by the friction. The investigation has been made for the contacts between similar or dissimilar materials and under general conditions in which the applied loads consist of a normal load, a tangential force, and a torque normal to the contact plane. The partial slip contact problem is solved through a numerical procedure based on a semi-analytical method. The conjugate gradient method and the fast Fourier transform technique are employed to speed up the computation. The contact pressures, surface shear tractions, stick ratios, tangential body displacements, and rotational angles are analysed under different loads and for similar or dissimilar contact materials. The coupling effects among the normal load, the tangential force, and the twisting moment are studied. Results show that for the contact of dissimilar materials and under a pure torque, the surface shear tractions q x and q y will produce normal deformations until the gross slip occurs. The combined actions of tangential force and twisting moment are prone to cause gross slip in comparison with those under tangential force or twisting moment alone. Moreover, the increasing twisting moment will cause the shrinking of the stick zone, but it evolves in different ways for the contacts of similar or dissimilar materials.