ON CONTACT BETWEEN THREE-DIMENSIONAL BEAMS UNDERGOING LARGE DEFLECTIONS

Contact between three-dimensional beams which undergo large motions is considered. To formulate the associated constraint conditions the point of contact has to be detected within the beam. Once this is known the contact constraint has to be formulated for a given beam discretization and the associated contribution to the weak form has to be developed. Also, consistent linearization of the contact contribution is derived, which is needed within Newton's method. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.