Parallel contact algorithms for nonlinear implicit transient analysis

This paper presents a nonlinear implicit transient formulation for parallel contact analysis. A new “lumping” algorithm based on the penalty method is developed to enforce contact constraints. This algorithm has the effect of incorporating contact generated connectivity and eliminating ill conditioning in the system stiffness matrix caused by the use of a large penalty parameter. Communication schemes are also developed to facilitate contact searching and enforcement in a parallel environment. Numerical analyses were conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed algorithm. In addition, several contact simulations are also performed to study the performance of this new algorithm under different circumstances. Efficiency plots are also presented for one of the simulations to evaluate the performance of this parallel implicit contact formulation.