Verification and Validation

 This section contains a few formulae, which made the listed assumptions, found in the Pre-Analysis & Start-Up page.

The analytical formula for computing the radius of contact zone (a) is given as follows:

The following command for the computation of the contact area can be downloaded here.

• This command was generously provided by Mr. Sean Harvey. (Lead Technical Services Engineer at Ansys Inc.)

<iframe width="600" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0ZI-QVUEJgk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Using this value of contact radius, we can also compute the normal pressured induced at the contact zone.  Theoretically, the maximum pressure (p_max) is induced along the y-axis, as expected, and is given by the following formula:

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Lastly, we also confirm that the applied load at the top vertex of the sphere matches our numerical contact pressure, integrated along the interface.

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