Effect of clearance and material property on contact pressure in two-dimensional conforming cylinders

Abstract

A numerical procedure is presented for solving the two-dimensional closely conforming elastic body contact problems. The line influence function is introduced in conjunction with the discretization of the integral equation. The ill-condition of a large scale linear system can be avoided by using an automatic mesh generation scheme to redefine the pressure area boundary. Numerical results have been verified by comparison with the analytical solution of Persson's. The effect of clearance and material properties on the contact pressure distribution are examined. Use of Hertz's theory will underestimate the peak pressure and overestimate the subtended angle. The results of the analysis has application in the design of certain mechanical joint elements and aligned journal bearings.