Contact Between Viscoelastic Bodies

Abstract

Similarly to elasticity, it is useful to classify contacts between viscoelastic bodies by comparing the regions of contact in the loaded and load-free states. General properties are obtained for the class of contacts in which the contact region does not exceed the natural (load-free) contact. The displacements, strains, and stresses in such problems are proportional to the level of the loading history, but the scaling of load histories leaves the contact region unaltered. The results are valid within linear viscoelasticity, either quasi-static or dynamic. Additional properties are derived for plane contact problems in quasi-static viscoelasticity when the contact is monotonically receding.