Numerical and experimental study of multi-contact on an elastic half-space

This paper deals with the numerical and experimental study of multiple contacts at the surface of an elastic half-space. A two-scale iterative method is proposed for solving the problem. First a procedure that takes into account interaction gives the contact forces at the tips of the asperities from which the pressure distribution at the contact interface is then calculated using an iterative scheme. Numerical results in the case of two and seven spherical indentors show that the method is as accurate as classical methods and very time efficient even for close proximity contacts. Additionally contact forces and pressures between a rubber block and several spherical indenters were measured. The differences between experiments and theoretical predictions were below 10%. This means that the proposed method can be a reliable tool to model contact problems for which such an accuracy is enough.