Simulation of crashworthiness problems with improved contact algorithms for implicit time integration

When studying crashworthiness problems, contact simulation can be the source of a number of problems. A first one is the discontinuities in the normal evolution for a boundary discretized by finite elements. Another problem is the treatment of the contact forces that can introduce numerical energy in the system. In this paper, we propose to combine a method of discontinuity smoothing with the energy–momentum consistent scheme that recently appeared in the literature.