FRICTIONAL CONTACT FINITE-ELEMENTS BASED ON MIXED VARIATIONAL-PRINCIPLES

This paper presents an original approach to the numerical modelling of unilateral contact by the finite element method. The main point is the development of mixed contact finite elements in which the displacement field and the contact stress field (pressure and friction shear) are discretized independently. The theory, based on variational principles, is first presented in the framework of infinitesimal deformations and, subsequently, is extended to large inelastic strains.