Conclusions

Abstract

Boundary elements flexibility approach for solving two-dimensional and axisymmetric contact problems between elastic bodies has been presented. The proposed method starts by computing flexibility matrices using boundary elements which can then be applied throughout the procedure. The flexibility matrices which represent the relationship between tractions and displacements only at the nodes coming into contact are computed separately for each elastic body. If the model geometries and the boundary conditions are symmetric only half of the elements in the flexibility matrices need to be calculated. Since the size of flexibility matrices are proportional to only the number of contacting nodes, these matrices are comparatively small and this saves computing time. Generally it is impossible to assume that node pairs coming into contact have the same coordinates. Therefore, a contact criterion for node pairs was defined. In order to obtain accurate solutions, a load incremental and an iterative procedure were employed in the contact analysis. The analysis has been extended to solve frictional as well as non-frictional contact cases.