A contact searching algorithm for contact-impact problems

A new contact searching algorithm for contact-impact systems is proposed in this paper. In terms of the cell structure and the linked-list, this algor ithm solves the problem of sorting and searching contacts in three dimensio ns by transforming if to a retrieving process from two one-dimensional arra ys, and binary searching is no longer required. Using this algorithm, the c ost of contact searching is reduced to the order of O(N) instead of O(Nlog( 2)N) for traditional ones, where N is the node number in the system. Moreov er, this algorithm can handle contact systems with arbitrary mesh layouts. Due to the simplicity of this algorithm it can be easily implemented in a d ynamic explicit finite element program. Our numerical experimental result s hows that this algorithm is reliable and efficient for contact searching of three dimensional systems.