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Smooth surface discretization for large deformation frictionless contact

Taylor, Robert L.; Wriggers, Peter

UCB/SEMM-1999/04, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1999, 18 pages

Finite deformation contact problems are associated with large sliding in the contact area. Thus, during an analysis a slave node can slide over several master segments within the actual finite element discretization. The standard contact discretization in these cases is based on a master-slave formulation in which the slave node contacts a straight master segment. Due to this treatment, the normal changes from segment to segment without a smooth transition when passing from one segment to the next. Since this may lead to convergence problems and, furthermore, may initiate jumps in the velocity field in dynamic solutions, it is preferable to have a smooth contact discretization with a continuous normal field. To have a continuous surface with no slope discontinuities between segments, a C superscript 1-continuous interpolation of the master surface is necessary. To achieve this, one can use different forms of discretization. Among these are Bezier, Hermitian, or other types of spline interpolations. In this paper, two formulations and discretizations that can be used to obtain smooth normal fields for contact of two deformable bodies are compared.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-99-04.pdf (804 KB)