Large deformation analysis of contact in degenerate shell elements

A new formulation is presented for the analysis of contact in degenerate shell elements. This formulation accounts for the transverse stress and strain through the shell thickness and can accommodate double-sided shell contact. The kinematic contact conditions are expressed accurately in terms of the physical shell contacting surfaces, and the problem is formulated in terms of Variational Inequalities (VI). Large deformations and rotations are accounted for by invoking the appropriate stress and strain measures. The solution of the variational inequality is obtained using Lagrange multipliers. This guarantees that the kinematic contact constraints are accurately satisÞed and that the solution is free from user-deÞned parameters. Two examples involving three beams in contact and ring compression are simulated to establish the validity of the developed formulations and the solution technique