Stabilized Lagrange multiplier methods for bilateral elastic contact with friction

In most finite element (FE) codes contact is checked only at the nodes, corresponding to the use of pointwise constraints. However, this approach might not be stable in case the bodies coming into contact have non-matching grids at the contact interface. To alleviate this problem, we propose a stabilized Lagrange multiplier method, based on a global polynomial multiplier, for the finite element solution of (non)linear elastic contact problems with non-matching grids. In particular, our approach allows us to avoid integrating products of different finite element basis functions on the surface meshes at the contact zone. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.