LARGE-DEFORMATION ANALYSIS OF CONTACT IN DEGENERATE SHELL ELEMENTS

A new formulation is presented for the analysis of contact in; degener ate shell elements. This formulation accounts for the transverse stres s and strain through the shell thickness and can accommodate double-si ded shell contact. The kinematic contact conditions are expressed accu rately in terms of the physical shell contacting surfaces, and the pro blem is formulated in terms of Variational Inequalities (VI). Large de formations and rotations are accounted for by invoking the appropriate stress and strain measures. The solution of the variational inequalit y is obtained using Lagrange multipliers. This guarantees that the kin ematic contact constraints are accurately satisfied and that the solut ion is free from user-defined parameters. Two examples involving three beams in contact and ring compression are simulated to establish the validity of the developed formulations and the solution technique. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.