Numerical modelling of mechanical contact between dissimilar materials

Since the beginning of the last century, the mechanical contact has been studied by many researchers who could find some relations between the contact area and other factors like contact load. One of these researchers was Hertz whose investigations about mechanical contact between cylindrical solid bodies has been used since that time. It is well known that the most real results are results of experimental tests. However, in this case, the experimental tests have some inconvenients to be solved, one of these, is the incapability of determine the contact area or the contact pressure distribution. Some investigators have employed different devices in order to solve the problems mentioned before. Since the 2000 year some researchers have employed softwares with Finite Element Method, this method has shown to be a practical tool in the understanding of behaviour of the bodies under contact conditions. In this work the authors present analytical and numerical results of two bodies in contact. This contact involves two main parameters, one is the geometry of the bodies and the other is the composition of them. The results show a very good correspondence between the numerical and analytical results.