On Sub-Surface Stress Caused By Contact Roughness In Compressible Elastic Solids

Contact between elastic bodies with self-affine rough surfaces is mostly studied with a focus on determining surface fields, despite body fields are of great importance to establish, for instance, when and where elasticity breaks down. This work aims at analyzing the effect of contact roughness on the body fields of compressible frictionless solids modeled using Green?s function molecular dynamics. Although area-load curves are insensitive to changes in the Hurst exponent as long as they are correctly normalized and are clearly not affected by compressibility, the Von-Mises stress is found to depend on both Hurst exponent and Poisson?s ratio.