Interaction of a rigid punch with a base-secured elastic rectangle with stress-free sides

The plane contact problem of the indentation of a rigid punch into a base-sucured elastic rectangle with stress-free sides is considered. The problem is solved by a method tested earlier and reduces to a system of two integral equations in functions describing the displacement of the surface of the rectangle outside the punch and the normal or shear stress on its base. These functions are sought in the form of the sum of trigonometric series and an exponential function with a root singularity. The ill-posed infinite systems of algebraic equations obtained as a result of this are regularized by introducing small positive parameters. Because the matrix elements of the systems, and also the contact stresses, are defined by poorly converging numerical and functional series, the previously developed method of summation of these series is used. The contact pressure distribution and the dimensionless indenting force are found. Examples of a plane punch calculation are given.