Elastic contact of equal spheres under oblique forces (Q687444)

The paper deals with the contact of two elastic spheres of similar material and geometry, subjected to forces with varying tangential component in one direction with changing sign, and with varying normal component. The author assumes that the contact law satisfies the Hertz assumption, and he distinguishes between three types of contact regimes: complete adhesion, partial slip and full sliding. Cattaneo-Mindlin functions are used to derive a formula for the force-displacement relation with general load histories, which can be reduced to the Mindlin and Deresiewicz results by differentiation.