A 3D contact smoothing method using Gregory patches
Puso, Michael Anthony; Laursen, Tod A.
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Vol 54, Num 8, pp.1161 - 1194, July 2002
The University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94550, U.S.A.
Tod A. Laursen
Computational Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, U.S.A.
Abstract
In this work, a method is developed for smoothing three-dimensional contact surfaces. The method can be applied to both regular and irregular meshes. The algorithm employs Gregory patches to interpolate finite element nodes and provide tangent plane continuity between adjacent patches. The resulting surface interpolation is used to calculate gaps and contact forces, in a variationally consistent way, such that contact forces due to normal and frictional contact vary smoothly as slave nodes transition from one patch to the next. This eliminates the ‘chatter’ which typically occurs in a standard contact algorithm when a slave node is situated near a master facet edge. The elimination of this chatter provides a significant improvement in convergence behaviour, which is illustrated by a number of numerical examples. Furthermore, smoothed surfaces also provide a more accurate representation of the actual surface, such that resulting stresses and forces can be more accurately computed with coarse meshes in many problems. This fact is also demonstrated by the numerical examples.
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