Abstract
3‐D quasi‐static contact problems for elastic wedges with Coulomb friction are reduced to integral equations and integral inequalities with unknown contact normal pressures. To obtain these equations and inequalities, Green's functions for the wedges, where one face of the wedges is either stress‐free or fixed, are needed. Using Fourier and Kontorovich–Lebedev integral transformations, all the stresses and displacements in the wedges can be constructed in terms of solutions of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind on the semiaxis. The Green's functions can be calculated as uniformly convergent power series in (1‐2ν), where νis Poisson's ratio. An exponential decay of the kernels and right‐hand sides of the Fredholm integral equations provides the applicability of the collocation method for simple and fast calculation of the Green's functions. For a half‐space, which is a special case of an elastic wedge, the kernels degenerate and the functions reduce to the well‐known Boussinesq and Cerruti solutions.
Analysing the contact problems reveals that the Green's functions govern the kernels of the above mentioned integral equations and inequalities. Under the assumption that the punch has a smooth shape, the contact pressure is zero on the boundary of the unknown contact zone. Solving the contact problems with the help of the Galanov–Newton method, the normal contact pressure, the contact zone and the normal displacement around the contact zone can be determined simultaneously. In view of the numerical results, the influence of the friction forces on the punch force and the punch settlement is discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.