ORALS

It is known that the classical elastic beam model fails in the indentation analysis of an elastic beam by a rigid indenter. A simple higher-order beam model developed based on the Kerr-type differential relation between the indentation pressure and the deflection of pressured surface of the beam is applied to study the indentation of an elastic beam by a rigid circular cylinder. The proposed method is validated by comparing its predicted results with known data, and the merit of the proposed model is demonstrated by some new easy-to-use explicit formulas and numerical results. In particular, the present model confirms that the contact zone becomes two separate strips when its width increases and exceeds a certain critical value. It is expected that this simple higher-order beam model could be found useful in the mechanical indentation analysis of some elastic beam problems for which the classical beam model fails.