A complete frictional contact: The transition from normal load to sliding

The problem of complete frictional contact between a square elastic block and an elastically similar half-plane is considered when the block is first pressed normally into the half-plane and then a monotonically increasing shear force is applied until sliding is achieved. Numerical results show that for moderate levels of shear force (i.e. less than 50% of the sliding condition) very different qualitative behaviour is observed for high and low coefficients of friction. However, for high shear forces (i.e. near to the sliding condition), the response for high and low friction coefficients is similar.