THE PLANE FRICTIONLESS CONTACT OF 2 ELASTIC BODIES - THE INCLUSION PROBLEM

The mixed boundary value problem of the contact of two plane elastic bodies of arbitrary shape is solved for zero friction in their contact zone. It is reduced to a system of four singular integral equations referred to the contact zone and the remaining parts of the boundaries of the two bodies. The system is complemented by two more equations derived from the single-valuedness of the displacements along the contact boundaries. The solution of these equations yields the distribution of the contact stresses and the contact length. The method is applied to the symmetric case of an infinite elastic plate containing an oversized elastic inclusion.