Deviation of the results obtained from different commercial finite element solvers due to friction formulation

In FEM simulations contact in conjunction with plastic material behaviour leads to highly nonlinear equations in the FEM algorithms. This causes problems in numerical convergence. FEM-software providers handle this problem by automatic contact damping or similar algorithms. In this paper a benchmark between four FEM-solvers is performed based on a model for ring compression tests. For all simulations identical physical as well as numerical influence parameters are used. The simulations have shown a significant divergence in the results depending on the used FEM-software.