Adhesive Contact between a Rigid Punch and a Half-Plane via a Thin, Soft Interlayer

The contact pressure arising when a flat-ended punch is loaded against an elastic half-plane with a thin, rigid-ideally plastic interlayer is found under adhesive conditions. Slip line field theory is employed, and the local stress state in the substrate deduced in order to assess the brittle fracture strength of the material beneath the contact.