Mathematical models for characterizing non-Hertzian contacts

In soft and conformal contacts, the assumptions made in the Hertz theory are violated to some extent, leading to inaccurate outcomes. An alternative contact approach is the Kelvin-Voigt model that suffers from a discontinuity existing in its constitutive law. The fi-nite element method is also expensive computationally to be used for contact simulation. The present study introduces a concept to simulate either soft or conformal contacts and develops mathematically closed-form contact models, which are nonlinear, promising, and easy-to-implement while resolving the discontinuity issue with the Kelvin-Voigt model. Two demonstrative applications, i.e. a ball-on-plate contact and a spherical joint, are considered. The developed approaches are integrated into forward dynamics algorithms to be assessed and compared against available contact approaches in the literature. Moreover, a finite element analysis is constructed for comparison purposes. It can be concluded that the proposed contact models are robust and easy-to-implement for non-Hertzian soft and conformal contacts. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A new concept and mathematical models for simulating soft and conformal contacts have been proposed in this study, successfully addressing the discontinuity issue in traditional models.