ENERGY CONSISTENT ALGORITHMS FOR FRICTIONAL CONTACT PROBLEMS

In this paper, the energy and momentum conserving algorithmic paradigm is extended to encompass a phenomenon featuring physical dissipation: dynamic frictional contact. Whereas in other works dealing with conse rvative systems the chief aim is often the maintenance of numerical st ability in the non-linear regime, in this investigation we seek to ach ieve not only this benefit but also the accurate algorithmic productio n of physical dissipation associated with frictional processes; The ap proach here features a product formula algorithm for the evolution of local frictional conditions, with the associated operator split guided by an a priori energy estimate. The resulting algorithm is characteri zed by exact conservation of energy during stick friction, and positiv e dissipation consistent with the frictional model used during slip. E ffectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated by a series of finite el ement simulations involving large deformations and frictional slip, co mplete with appropriate comparisons to more traditional schemes. (C) 1 998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.