Polygonal finite element methods for contact-impact problems on non-conformal meshes

In this paper, a polygonal finite element method is presented for large deformation frictionless dynamic contact-impact problems with non-conformal meshes. The geometry and interfaces of the problem are modeled independent of the background mesh based on the level set method to produce polygonal elements at the intersection of the interface with the regular FE mesh. Various polygonal shape functions are employed to investigate the capability of polygonal-FEM technique in modeling frictionless contact-impact problems. The contact constraints are imposed between polygonal elements produced along the contact surface through the node-to-surface contact algorithm. Several contact-impact problems are modeled using various polygonal interpolation functions, including the Wachspress interpolation functions, the metric coordinate shape functions, the natural neighbor based functions, and the mean value coordinate functions to demonstrate the efficiency of proposed technique in modeling contact-impact problems. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.