The contact of an elasto-plastic sphere with an elasto-plastic flat has been studied.
The effect of deformation on both of the objects has been analyzed.
A new parameter, class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0301679X15004053&_mathId=si0006.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0301679X15004053&_rdoc=1&_issn=0301679X&md5=7d3cb93ad8397c5e1cadc0401ca57763">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="18" width="13" alt="View the MathML source" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0301679X15004053-si0006.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode">, has been defined as an important factor in contact problems.
More than 400 different finite element cases have been performed.
Empirical formulation has been provided to predict the contact parameters.