THE SPLITTING PINBALL METHOD FOR CONTACT-IMPACT PROBLEMS

In the pinball contact-impact algorithm, the interpenetration check is simplified by enforcing it only on a set of spheres embedded within the elements. In the splitting pinball adaptation of this algorithm, the parent pinball is split into a hierarchy of descendent pinballs whenever interpenetration of the parent pinballs is detected. The interpenetration check is then applied to the descendent pinballs and contact forces are generated. This provides a better representation of the contact surface for thin shell elements. The implementation of the method with a penalty contact method is described and examples are given. It is also shown that the method easily and automatically handles edge-to-edge, edge-to-surface, and self-surface contact without any user specification.