Modeling the edge contact effect of finite contact lines on subsurface stresses

• Finite contact lines lead to subsurface stresses determined by free boundaries.
• Semi-Analytical Methods (SAMs) are a rapid alternative to FEM for contact modeling.
• Free boundary correction extended to evaluation of subsurface stresses from SAMs.
• Three dimensionless factors examined: slenderness, length ratio and load.
• Stress distributions evaluated with high precision and low calculation times.

Finite contact line conditions lead to subsurface stress distributions determined by the free boundaries. Combined with a correction procedure, Semi-Analytical Methods (SAMs) accurately include the free boundary effects, and represent a rapid alternative to the Finite Element Method (FEM) for contact pressure calculation. This paper extends the free boundary correction procedure to the evaluation of surface and subsurface stresses from SAMs. The investigation integrates a validation based on a two-level factorial comparison confronting the stress distributions established with the developed procedure to results obtained from FEM models. The comparison examines three dimensionless factors, and shows that the stress distributions are evaluated with a high level of precision. The model also offers evaluation more than 125 times faster than FEM simulations.

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