Simulation of Frictional Dissipation Under Biaxial Tangential Loading With the Method of Dimensionality Reduction

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the contact between the elastic bodies subjected to a constant normal load and a varying tangential loading in two directions of the contact plane. For uni-axial in-plane loading, the Cattaneo-Mindlin superposition principle can be applied even if the normal load is not constant but varies as well. However, this is generally not the case if the contact is periodically loaded in two perpendicular in-plane directions. The applicability of the Cattaneo-Mindlin superposition principle guarantees the applicability of the method of dimensionality reduction (MDR) which in the case of a uni-axial in-plane loading has the same accuracy as the Cattaneo-Mindlin theory. In the present paper we investigate whether it is possible to generalize the procedure used in the MDR for bi-axial in-plane loading. By comparison of the MDR-results with a complete three-dimensional numeric solution, we arrive at the conclusion that the exact mapping is not possible. However, the inaccuracy of the MDR solution is on the same order of magnitude as the inaccuracy of the Cattaneo-Mindlin theory itself. This means that the MDR can be also used as a good approximation for bi-axial in-plane loading.