An analysis of fully plastic Brinell indentation (Q1358853)

Indentation of a hard sphere into inelastic solids, Brinell indentation, is examined theoretically and numerically by aid of classical plastic flow theory. With the main interest focused on fully plastic behaviour at indentation, the mechanical analysis is carried out for power-law hardening rigid-plastic materials where self-similarity features play a dominant role. It is explained in detail how the problem of a moving contact boundary may be reduced to a stationary one by an appropriate transformation of field variables. A standard finite element technique employing contact elements for a moving boundary is used to analyse with tolerable accuracy the influence of elasticity and more elaborate hardening behaviour. Some relevant features are shown for a sequence of solutions from elastic Hertzian to fully plastic behaviour.