ON METHODS OF REDUCTION AND ELIMINATION OF STRESS SINGULARITIES IN SOME ELASTIC CONTACT PROBLEMS

Stress singularities appear in such elastic contact problems as an ind enter compressing a semi-infinite body, or the axisymmetric case of a turbine disc shrunk on to a shaft. The stress is infinite at the edge of the sharp corner of the indenter and the disc, as well as in neighb ouring areas of the semi-infinite body and the shaft. In this paper, t he changes in the nature of singularities and stress distributions hav e been determined numerically and experimentally for different ways of shaping the indenter, the semi-infinite body and the interface. Conta cts with and without friction have been considered. The aim of the inv estigation is to find a shape which either totally eliminates the sing ularity or essentially limits the area of stress increase, diminishing radically the stress concentration factor at some chosen distance fro m the comer. The considered problem is of interest from the cognitive point of view and is of some importance in engineering practice.