A contact analysis approach based on linear complementarity formulation using smoothed finite element methods

Based on the subdomain parametric variational principle (SPVP), a contact analysis approach is formulated in the incremental form for 2D solid mechanics problems discretized using only triangular elements. The present approach is implemented for the newly developed node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM), the edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) as well as standard FEM models. In the approach, the contact interface equations are discretized by contact point-pairs using a modified Coulomb frictional contact model. For strictly imposing the contact constraints, the global discretized system equations are transformed into a standard linear complementarity problem (LCP), which can be readily solved using the Lemke method. This approach can simulate different contact behaviors including bonding/debonding, contacting/departing, and sticking/slipping. An intensive numerical study is conducted to investigate the effects of various parameters and validate the proposed method. The numerical results have demonstrated the validity and efficiency of the present contact analysis approach as well as the good performance of the ES-FEM method, which provides solutions of about 10 times better accuracy and higher convergence rate than the FEM and NS-FEM methods. The results also indicate that the NS-FEM provides upper-bound solutions in energy norm, relative to the fact that FEM provides lower-bound solutions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.