Contact analysis of a semi-infinite strip pressed onto a half plane by a line force

•Developed a new solution for the receding contact of an elastic layer over a half space using the distributed dislocation technique.•Provided a method to compute the extent of stick and slip zones as a function of the coefficient of friction.•Provided an estimation of the lift off angle of the upper layer.

Receding contacts are a class of contacts that have received little attention. The first studies carried out on the subject have shown that the area of contact decreases as a load is applied and is load independent. The simple plane problem of an elastic layer pressed onto an elastically similar half space by a line force is studied here. The problem is solved for several coefficients of friction using distributions of edge dislocations. The extent of the stick and the slip zones are found and the lift-off angle of the strip is estimated from the resulting tractions distribution.