Frictional beam-to-beam multiple-point contact finite element

The present paper is the extension of author’s earlier research devoted to more accurate numerical modelling of beam-to-beam contact in the cases when beam axes form acute angles in the contact zone. In such situation with beam deformations taken into account, the contact cannot be considered as point-wise but it extends to a certain area. To cover such a case in a more realistic way, two additional pairs of contact points are introduced to accompany the original single pair of contact points from the point-wise formulation. The Coulomb friction model is introduced and advantage is taken from the analogy to plasticity. The penalty method is used to enforce the contact and friction constraints. The appropriate kinematic variables for tangential contact and their finite element approximation are derived. Basing on the weak form for frictional contact and its linearisation, the tangent stiffness matrix and the residual vector are derived. The enhanced element is tested using author’s computer programs and comparisons with the point-wise contact elements are made.