A FINITE-ELEMENT FORMULATION FOR ROD CONTINUUM INTERACTIONS - THE ONE-DIMENSIONAL SLIDELINE

A finite element formulation is presented for treatment of the mechani cal interaction between a rod-like object and a continuous medium, as occurs, for example, between reinforcing steel and surrounding concret e. An impenetrability constraint restricts the rod's lateral motion re lative to the continuum, while an accompanying constraint allows axial slip subject to a release criterion. Satisfaction of these constraint s is enforced via application of penalty and augmented Lagrangian regu larizations. The proposed implementation is suitable for both static a nd dynamic implicit equation solving schemes, making it useful for a w ide range of problems.