Fundamentally New Coupled Approach to Contact Mechanics via the Dirichlet-Neumann Schwarz Alternating Method

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel coupled approach to contact mechanics using the Dirichlet-Neumann Schwarz alternating method, improving accuracy, energy conservation, and flexibility over traditional techniques in multi-body contact simulations.

Contribution

It presents a new domain decomposition-based contact simulation method that eliminates contact constraints and enhances accuracy and stability in multi-physics applications.

Findings

Outperforms traditional methods in accuracy and energy conservation.

Effectively handles complex multi-body impact problems.

Demonstrates robustness across different mesh topologies and time schemes.

Abstract

Contact phenomena are essential in understanding the behavior of mechanical systems. Existing computational approaches for simulating mechanical contact often encounter numerical issues, such as inaccurate physical predictions, energy conservation errors, and unwanted oscillations. We introduce an alternative technique, rooted in the non-overlapping Schwarz alternating method, originally developed for domain decomposition. In multi-body contact scenarios, this method treats each body as a separate, non-overlapping domain and prevents interpenetration using an alternating Dirichlet-Neumann iterative process. This approach has a strong theoretical foundation, eliminates the need for contact constraints, and offers flexibility, making it well-suited for multiscale and multi-physics applications. We conducted a numerical comparison between the Schwarz method and traditional methods like Lagrange multiplier and penalty methods, focusing on a benchmark impact problem. Our results indicate that the Schwarz alternating method surpasses traditional methods in several key areas: it provides more accurate predictions for various measurable quantities and demonstrates exceptional energy conservation capabilities. To address the issue of unwanted oscillations in contact velocities and forces, we explored various algorithms and stabilization techniques, ultimately opting for the naive-stabilized Newmark scheme for its simplicity and effectiveness. Furthermore, we validated the efficiency of the Schwarz method in a three-dimensional impact problem, highlighting its innate capacity to accommodate different mesh topologies, time integration schemes, and time steps for each interacting body.