An effective two‐dimensional frictional contact model for arbitrary curved geometry

A finite element model is developed on the basis of a variational formulation of the perturbed Lagrange type and the classical Coulomb law of friction, for the analysis of frictional contact problems in two dimensions. The model accounts for all geometric/kinematic non‐linearities associated with large sliding motions as well as arbitrary contact‐surface curvatures. Explicit forms for the contact force and tangent stiffness operators and a penalty‐type format is utilized in the implementation. An extensive number of numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and practical usefulness of the model.