Investigation of continuous and discontinuous contact cases in the contact mechanics of graded materials using analytical method and FEM

The aim of this paper was to examine the continuous and discontinuous contact problems between the functionally graded (FG) layer pressed with a uniformly distributed load and homogeneous half plane using an analytical method and FEM. The FG layer is made of non-homogeneous material with an isotropic stress–strain law with exponentially varying properties. It is assumed that the contact at the FG layer-half plane interface is frictionless, and only the normal tractions can be transmitted along the contacted regions. The body force of the FG layer is considered in the study. The FG layer was positioned on the homogeneous half plane without any bonds. Thus, if the external load was smaller than a certain critical value, the contact between the FG layer and half plane would be continuous. However, when the external load exceeded the critical value, there was a separation between the FG layer and half plane on the finite region, as discontinuous contact. Therefore, there have been some steps taken in this study. Firstly, an analytical solution for continuous and discontinuous contact cases of the problem has been realized using the theory of elasticity and Fourier integral transform techniques. Then, the problem modeled and two-dimensional analysis was carried out by using ANSYS package program based on FEM. Numerical results for initial separation distance and contact stress distributions between the FG layer and homogeneous half plane for continuous contact case; the start and end points of separation and contact stress distributions between the FG layer and homogeneous half plane for discontinuous contact case were provided for various dimensionless quantities including material inhomogeneity, distributed load width, the shear module ratio and load factor for both methods. The results obtained using FEM were compared with the results found using analytical formulation. It was found that the results obtained from analytical formulation were in perfect agreement with the FEM study.