FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF RUBBER-LIKE IN COMPRESSIBLE ELASTOMERS UNDERGOING LARGE STRAINS AND CONTACT INTERACTIONS

Inherent questions of the numerical simulation problems of ruber-like strictly incompressible elastomers for large strains and contact inter action are discussed in this paper. The incompressibility conditions a re satisfied by means of explicit elimination of one part of the displ acement vector components from the general system of FE equations. Num erical aspects of this procedure are discussed in detail. Further a pe nalty function method is applied to model frictionless contact interac tion between surfaces of a modelled body with each other and with a ri gid Sizing. Numerical examples and experimental results are presented and compared.