A perturbed Lagrangian formulation for the finite element solution of contact problems

Making use of a perturbed Lagrangian formulation, a finite element procedure for contact problems is developed for the general case in which node-to-node contact no longer holds. The proposed procedure leads naturally to a discretization of the contact interface into contact segments. Within the context of a bilinear interpolation for the displacement field, a mixed finite element approximation is introduced by assuming discontinuous contact pressure, constant on the contact segment. Because of this piece-wise constant approximation, the gap function enters into the formulation in an 'average' sense instead of through a point-wise definition. Numerical examples are presented that illustrate the performance of the proposed procedure.