The boundary element (BEM) approach for contact problems on coated materials is addressed. First, plane strain (cylinder/flat) elastic contact of coating/substrate composites with very low generalised coating thickness t_c~* = t~((c))/a_H, where a_H is the Hertzian contact radius, and t~((c)) is the coating thickness, is considered.~1 Coatings more compliant than their substrates (E~((c))/E~((s)) =041) and the inverse ((E~((c))/E~((s))=2..44) are studied, together with the influence of friction. Major features evidenced by these numerical simulations (Fig. 1) are important stress discontinuities at the coating-substrate interface in all cases and a specific, low thickness effect leading to a stress minimum in the high modulus coatings instead of the stress maximum expected from the finite element method (FEM) literature and from the authors' results for 'thick' coatings.
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