A virtual element method for frictional contact including large deformations
ISSN: 0264-4401
Article publication date: 20 June 2019
Issue publication date: 12 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the application of the virtual element method (VEM) to contact problems between elastic bodies.
Design/methodology/approach
Polygonal elements with arbitrary shape allow a stable node-to-node contact enforcement. By adaptively adjusting the polygonal mesh, this methodology is extended to problems undergoing large frictional sliding.
Findings
The virtual element is well suited for large deformation contact problems. The issue of element stability for this specific application is discussed, and the capability of the method is demonstrated by means of numerical examples.
Originality/value
This work is completely new as this is the first time, as per the authors’ knowledge, the VEM is applied to large deformation contact.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The first author would like to acknowledge the support of the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” under contract “Novel finite element technologies for anisotropic media” via the priority program “Reliable Simulation Techniques in Solid Mechanics, Development of Non-standard Discretization Methods, Mechanical and Mathematical Analysis” (SPP 1748).
Citation
Wriggers, P. and Rust, W.T. (2019), "A virtual element method for frictional contact including large deformations", Engineering Computations, Vol. 36 No. 7, pp. 2133-2161. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-02-2019-0043
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited