A Novel Three-Dimensional Contact Finite Element Based on Smooth Pressure Interpolations

This article proposes a new three-dimensional contact finite element which employs continuous and weakly coupled pressure interpolations on each of the interacting boundaries. The resulting formulation circumvents the geometric bias of one-pass methods, as well as the surface locking of traditional two-pass node-on-surf ace methods. A Lagrange multiplier implementation of the proposed element is validated for frictionless quasi-static contact by a series of numerical simulations