Three dimensional finite element modeling of thermomechanical frictional contact between finite deformation bodies using R-minimum strategy Original Research Article

An algorithm for analyzing the transient thermal coupling with the frictional contact between the multiple elastic–plastic bodies in finite deformation is presented using the R-minimum strategy. An arbitrarily shaped contact element strategy, named as node-to-point contact element strategy, is proposed to handle the thermomechanical frictional contact between finite deformation bodies. Assuming the material properties to be temperature dependent, the constitutive equations for both the thermomechanical frictional contact and the thermal-elastic–plastic materials are deduced respectively and applied in our finite element code. Finally, two examples are presented to show the efficiency and usefulness of this algorithm.