Effect of arbitrarily directed tangential force on elastic contacting bodies

Based on the Mindlin-Deresiewicz displacement field solution, a simple meth od is presented to obtain the force-displacement relationship for a contact between two elastically similar bodies. The bodies are initially pressed t ogether along the normal to their mutual tangential plane and subsequently loaded by a monotonically increasing tangential force acting at an angle to the axes of the contact ellipse. The results are derived based on both no- slip and microslip assumptions, and compared with the available solutions.