Influence of Cylindrical Inclusion on the Elastic Field of Soft Material Loaded by Wedge Indenter

Abstract

In this work, the influence of a rigid cylindrical inclusion on the elastic field in a transparent soft material is studied by an embedded-grating technique. The same experimental procedure was implemented on two specimens, a homogeneous bulk soft material and the same material containing a rigid cylindrical inhomogeneity. Under the indentation of a rigid wedge, two kinds of deformation sectors underneath the contacting boundary are observed from experimental results. Furthermore, the shape of the deformation sectors is horizontally expanded due to the inclusion. A local fluctuation of contact stresses between the soft matrix and rigid inclusion are discussed.