A unified approach to discrete frictional contact problems

We present a unified treatment of discrete, single-step, time-discretized c ontact problems with Coulomb friction that include quasistatic and dynamic problems involving rigid or elastic bodies undergoing small or large displa cements. A general existence theory for these finite-dimensional problems i s established under broad assumptions that are easily satisfied by many spe cial models. The proof is based on a homotopy argument. This result extends many existence results known to date for discrete contact problems. (C) 19 99 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.