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-surface methods. A Lagrange multiplier implementation of the proposed element is validated for frictionless quasi-static contact by a series of numerical simulations. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.