Partial slip under complete contacts near adjacent corners

Abstract

A solution has been derived for a particular case of complete contact, where the contact edge is located near to an adjacent internal corner and separated by a finite clearance. If the separation is extremely small, the gap may be thought of as a crack and, further, if the contact edge is known to be in a stuck state the classical semi-infinite crack eigensolution will define the tractions along the adjacent contact interface, and hence define the minimum coefficient of friction to ensure adhesion. For problems where this separation is small and finite, the proposed semi-infinite solution defines the tractions along the interface considering the presence of adjacent material. A finite example problem of the block resting in an elastically similar rectangular trench is considered. The solution is then applied to predict the state of edge closure and slip at various finite separations and loading conditions.