On the super-Rayleighsubseismic elastodynamic indentation.pdfVIP

Journal of Elasticity 31: 141-161, 1993. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers.Printed in the Netherlands. 141 On the super-Rayleigh/subseismic elastodynamic indentation problem H.G. G E O R G I A D I S 1 J.R. BARBER 2 1School of Technology, Box 422, The Aristotle Universityof Thessaloniki, 54006, Greece 2Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125, USA Received 12 February 1991; accepted 10 June 1991 A~tract. The elastodynamic super-Rayleigh/subseismic indentation paradox is examined in this paper. Both the Craggs/Roberts steady-state problem and the Robinson/Thompson transient problem are reconsidered. Certain features of these solutions are discussed from a new point of view, by considering asymptotics at the end of the contact region, the influence of contact inequalities, energetics of the process and existence/uniqueness. 1. Introduction A problem of considerable interest in elastodynamics concerns the steady motion of a frictionless rigid indenter at velocity V across the surface of an elastic half-plane, as shown in Fig. 1. In the case where the indenter is a cylinder of radius R, this problem is the elastodynamic counterpart of the classical Hertzian contact problem, but the more general case of an arbitrary indenter presents no special additional problems. Craggs and Roberts [1] obtained solutions for the sub-Rayleigh case (F ca) and the superseismic case (V cl), where cl = v/(2 + 2#)/p, C 2 = N~~ are the dilatational and shear wave speeds respectively, 2,/~ are Lam6s constants, p is the density, and ca is the Rayleigh wave speed defined b