Stress disturbances caused by the inhomogeneity in an elastic half-space subjected to contact loading

Inhomogeneities can increase localized stress and cause microstructural alterations to initiate fatigue failures in rolling elements under cyclic contact loading. To study the stress disturbances created by the inhomogeneity, a two-dimensional contact stress analysis is presented for a cylindrical indenter sliding on an elastic half-space containing an inhomogeneity of arbitrary shape. The boundary element method is used to analyze the contact problem, where actual contact boundary, contact pressure as well as tractions and displacements at inhomogeneity–substrate interface are determined by solving a set of integral equations numerically. Numerical results are presented to investigate effects and the stress disturbances caused by the inhomogeneity with various locations, sizes and material properties of inhomogeneity. The results also show that hard inclusions are more detrimental than soft deformable particles in rolling contact elements.