An Efficient Numerical Method With a Parallel Computational Strategy for Solving Arbitrarily Shaped Inclusions in Elastoplastic Contact Problems

The plastic zone developed during elastoplastic contact may be effectively modeled as an inclusion in an isotropic half space. This paper proposes a simple but efficient computational method to analyze the stresses caused by near surface inclusions of arbitrary shape. The solution starts by solving a corresponding full space inclusion problem and proceeds to annul the stresses acting normal and tangential to the surface, where the numerical computations are processed by taking advantage of the fast Fourier transform techniques with a parallel computing strategy. The extreme case of a cuboidal inclusion with one facet on the surface of the half space is chosen to validate the method. When the surface truncation domain is extended sufficiently and the grids are dense enough, the results based on the new approach are in good agreement with the exact solutions. When solving a typical elastoplastic contact problem, the present analysis is roughly two times faster than the image inclusion approach and six times faster than the direct method. In addition, the present work demonstrates that a significant enhancement in the computational efficiency can be achieved through the introduction of parallel computation.