Mortar Finite Element Methods for Large Deformation Contact Mechanics

by Bin Yang

In this work, a mortar finite element formulation is developed for solving large deformation frictional contact problems in a robust and accurate manner. The technique employs an integral projection of contact variables on the contact surface to provide a consistent representation of all contact variables over a single discretization. A new global searching algorithm based on bounding volume hierarchies, with the distinct advantage of output sensitivity, significantly improves the performance of the mortar formulation. The algorithm is extended to self- contact problems by applying a curvature criterion with a new algorithm to detect subsurface adjacencies. Finally, a lubricated contact formulation based on the mortar element method is developed. The fluid film thickness is computed with a least squares projection based on dual basis functions. Numerical examples presented in this book demonstrate the superior performance of mortar finite element methods for contact simulations.

216 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2009