Cyclic tangential loading of a power-law hardening elastic–plastic spherical contact in pre-sliding stage

The cyclic tangential loading of the contact between a power-law hardening elastic–plastic sphere and a rigid flat under full stick condition is studied. The contact behavior in pre-sliding stage is investigated with a developed finite element model, and the contact parameters are obtained. Under the same maximum load in the cyclic tangential loading process, the tangential load–displacement relation is significantly affected by hardening exponents. Meanwhile, the dissipated energy obtained from the tangential load–displacement loops is larger for the smaller hardening exponent cases because the plastic deformation is more severe for these cases. The contact area increases mainly during the first tangential load cycle, and the increase is larger for materials with smaller hardening exponents.