AN EXPERIMENTAL-NUMERICAL HYBRID METHOD FOR ELASTIC CONTACT PROBLEMS

An experimental-numerical hybrid technique for determining the contact stress distribution between two elastic bodies having both frictionle ss as well as bonded contact is discussed in this paper. The hybrid me thod makes use of experimental data collected at a section far from th e contact surface and the numerically generated influence coefficients , in terms of the applied unit normal and shear stresses. The experime ntal data, i.e., the differences in normal stresses and the shear stre ss, are obtained using photoelastic analysis for the examples illustra ted in this paper. When substituted into equations corresponding to th e unit normal and shear stress applied in the contact region, this res ults in a set of algebraic equations which, when solved, allow the con tact stress distribution to be obtained. This method is illustrated wi th examples involving simple and complex geometries of the contacting bodies.