Bearing/contact for anisotropic materials

Abstract

The bearing/contact behavior of fiber composites has been investigated using a modified nonlinear assumed stress hybrid finite element formulation. The problem considered is an anisotropic body subjected to compressive contact from an isotropic indentor, with moderate sliding on the contact surface. The characteristic matrices of the bodies brought into contact are obtained by employing a modified principle of the minimum complementary energy, and using the contact conditions along the contacting boundary as constraints with corresponding Lagrangian multipliers. A computer program has been developed for the two-dimensional punch problem. The stick-slide behavior and frictional effects are performed using an iterative technique. Thirty cases of the punch/contact problem have been analyzed. Results for typical variations in properties show that, for the same frictional condition, the material stiffness in the indentation direction dominates the stresses on the contacting surface. By increasing the friction on the contact surface, the transverse tensile stress is relaxed; this can be directly related to suppression of fiber-resin debonding or splitting in practical bearing problems.