A FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR CONTACT/IMPACT
J.M. Solberg and P. Papadopoulos Fin. Elem. Anal. Des., 30, pp. 297-311, (1998)

Abstract
Ideas from the analysis of differential-algebraic equations are applied to the numerical solution of frictionless contact/impact problems in solid mechanics. Index-one and two formulations for dynamic contact-impact within the context of the finite element method are derived. The resulting equations are shown to stabilize the kinematic fields at the contact interface, at the expense of a small energy loss, which is shown to decrease consistently with mesh refinement. This energy dissipation is shown to be necessary for the establishment of persistent contact. A Newmark-type time integration scheme is derived from the proposed formulation, and shown to yield excellent results in modeling the transition to contact/impact.


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