Abstract:

An incremental formulation of the elastoplastic stress-strain relationship is presented, in which the strain terms and the normal stress σ_z for the plane strain problem are not explicitly included. This relationship appears quite suitable for the initial stress expression in the boundary element method （BEM）. The elastoplastic contact problem without friction is investigated by BEM, and the numerical solutions are obtained by virtue of the mathematical programming technique. As numerical examples, the problems of the elastic and elastoplastic contacts of two cylinders are studied. The comparison of the BEM solution with the analytical and the finite element solutions shows that the method developed in this paper is efficient for analysis of the elastoplastic contact problem with small plastic zone.