THE ELASTIC FIELD FOR AN UPRIGHT OR TILTED SLIDING CIRCULAR FLAT PUNCH ON A TRANSVERSELY ISOTROPIC HALF-SPACE

This paper gives closed form expressions for the displacement and stre ss fields in a transversely isotropic half space when the surface is l oaded in shear by a sliding circular flat punch in either an upright o r inclined position. The shear traction on the surface is taken as a f riction coefficient multiplied by the frictionless contact pressure. T he solution derived here for shear loading is generally approximate si nce the interaction between the normal and shear loading is ignored an d the relative displacements do not necessarily align to the direction of shear traction. However, it is shown that the interaction between the surface stresses vanishes for a particular value of the elastic co nstants and it is also shown that in some instances the tangential dis placements do align with the shear traction thus yielding an exact sol ution. It is furthermore shown that the solution for a sliding flat up right indenter is an exact solution to the problem of a circular exter nal crack in an infinite transversely isotropic body subjected to unif orm tangential displacement loading at infinity. Numerical results for the subsurface stress fields are given to illustrate the effects of s liding and transverse isotropy.