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International audience; The interaction of beam-like structures against surfaces is a challenging problem with applications in engineering (wheel-rail contact, pipeline-soil interaction, ropes sliding on the seabed) and in medical applications such as surgical planning and training (catheter navigation, aneurysm coiling, stent deployment). This contact problem is traditionally solved using Total Lagrangian beam formulations, which interact against Lagrangian triangulated surfaces. Overall, the computational speed is affected, due to the nonlinearities of the beam formulation and, as well as due to the expensive search algorithms, required to find the close point projection. In the search towards an efficient beam to surface contact algorithm, this paper explores the combined use of 1) a corotational beam formulation, where the motion of the beam element is decomposed in rigid body and pure deformational parts and 2) an implicit description of the surface by means of discrete signed distance fields (SDF), which can be seen as a Lagrangian beam immersed within an Eulerian (rigid) solid. To do so, a previously reported implicit corotational formulation for beam dynamics is modified to account for frictional contact, by means of a penalty term. The new contributions are fully linearized to update the tangent operator and the system is integrated in time by means of the HHT-α method. Overall, a consistent implicit contact dynamics formulation is provided. A SDF, defined in a voxel-type grid, is used to represent implicitly the surface geometry. The SDF values and derivatives are computed at the Lagrangian point of integration of the beam by means of an efficient tensor product of compact, high order, 1D Kernels, as widely used in immersed Fluid-Structure Interaction techniques. A wide variety of validation tests are presented which prove the accuracy and robustness of the proposed algorithm.

This paper introduces a new computational framework for the analysis of large strain fast solid dynamics. The paper builds upon previous work published by the authors (Gil et al., 2014) [48] , where a first order system of hyperbolic equations is introduced for the simulation of isothermal elastic materials in terms of the linear momentum, the deformation gradient and its Jacobian as unknown variables. In this work, the formulation is further enhanced with four key novelties. First, the use of a new geometric conservation law for the co-factor of the deformation leads to an enhanced mixed formulation, advantageous in those scenarios where the co-factor plays a dominant role. Second, the use of polyconvex strain energy functionals enables the definition of generalised convex entropy functions and associated entropy fluxes for solid dynamics problems. Moreover, the introduction of suitable conjugate entropy variables enables the derivation of a symmetric system of hyperbolic equations, dual of that expressed in terms of conservation variables. Third, the new use of a tensor cross product [61] greatly facilitates the algebraic manipulations of expressions involving the co-factor of the deformation. Fourth, the development of a stabilised Petrov–Galerkin framework is presented for both systems of hyperbolic equations, that is, when expressed in terms of either conservation or entropy variables. As an example, a polyconvex Mooney–Rivlin material is used and, for completeness, the eigen-structure of the resulting system of equations is studied to guarantee the existence of real wave speeds. Finally, a series of numerical examples is presented in order to assess the robustness and accuracy of the new mixed methodology, benchmarking it against an ample spectrum of alternative numerical strategies, including implicit multi-field Fraeijs de Veubeke–Hu–Washizu variational type approaches and explicit cell and vertex centred Finite Volume schemes.

A mixed second order stabilised Petrov–Galerkin finite element framework was recently introduced by the authors (Lee et al., 2014) [46]. The new mixed formulation, written as a system of conservation laws for the linear momentum and the deformation gradient, performs extremely well in bending dominated scenarios (even when linear tetrahedral elements are used) yielding equal order of convergence for displacements and stresses. In this paper, this formulation is further enhanced for nearly and truly incompressible deformations with three key novelties. First, a new conservation law for the Jacobian of the deformation is added into the system providing extra flexibility to the scheme. Second, a variationally consistent Petrov–Galerkin stabilisation methodology is derived. Third, an adapted fractional step method is presented for both incompressible and nearly incompressible materials in the context of nonlinear elastodynamics. For completeness and ease of understanding, these three improvements are presented both in small and large strain regimes, studying the eigenstructure of the resulting systems. A series of numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the robustness of the enhanced methodology with respect to the work previously published by the authors.