Thermal and slip mechanism effects in rapid indentation by a flat punch

Summary The rapid indentation of a fully-coupled thermoelastic body by a flat, smooth rigid punch is studied in a 2D dynamic analysis. A semi-infinite punch width is assumed to be a valid short-time model, and a zone of slip mechanisms is assumed to form under the punch edge, and to relax the stresses there. The mathematical problem is reduced by superposition and transform methods to a Wiener-Hopf equation which, despite the dependence of poles and branch points on the time transform parameter, can be solved exactly. Imposition of the stress relaxation property of the zone then removes the singularity in punch edge stresses, thereby giving a relation for the contact region temperature change. Because a thermoelastic characteristic length of 0(10^–4)m is the scale factor, this transform can be inverted for so-called long times without invalidating the short-time nature of the model. The inversion shows that, despite the absence of actual plasticity and contact friction, nominal but not negligible temperature increases can occur in the contact region.