The indentation of a spherical punch into an ideally plastic half-space when there is contact friction

Calculations are presented of the indentation of a spherical punch into an ideally plastic half-space under condition of complete plasticity and taking account of contact friction, which is modelled according to Prandtl and Coulomb. Friction leads to the formation of a rigid zone at the centre of the punch when there is slipping of the material on the remaining part of the contact boundary. Limit values of the friction coefficients are obtained for which the rigid zone extends over the whole of the contact boundary. The dependence of the indentation force on the radius of the plastic area is in good agreement with experimental data.