Contact of one or more slender bodies with an elastic half space

Abstract

Integral equations are determined relating force and displacement distributions along slender bodies lying in or on an elastic half space. Every such body is shown to be sectionally equivalent to some flat frictionless punch, and procedures are given for computing the parameters of that equivalent punch, for various actual contact states. The resulting integral equation is a generalization of one first derived by Kalker, and new results are given for the force distributions on footings of various types, including cases of interaction between two or more adjacent bodies.