On a winkler ligament contact between a rigid disc and an elastic halfspace

This paper presents a variational solution to the problem of the contact between an isotropic elastic halfspace and a rigid circular indentor, where the contact is achieved through a set of ligaments modeled by a continuously distributed layer of Winkler elements. The problem is of interest to the modeling of the ligament-type contact mechanics between a rigid cylinder and a substrate. The limiting solution for Boussinesq indentation is modified to take into consideration small but finite influences of the elastic stiffness of the ligaments forming the interface layer.