NEW PHYSICAL FACTORS IN CONTACT INTERACTION OF ELASTIC BODIES OVER CLOSELY MATCHED SURFACES

The paper contains generalization and development of approaches, models and research methods for contact interaction of complex shaped bodies. In the case of contact along the surfaces of a close shape there are a number of problems. Firstly, analytical methods are not universally applied. Secondly, with a small gap between the surfaces of the contacting bodies the contribution of the deformation of the intermediate and surface layers to the balance of displacements becomes substantial. Thirdly, the application of traditional numerical methods also sharply increases the contribution of errors in contact surface shape approximation. All these factors bring on the need to develop new approaches, models and methods for the analysis of contact interaction of complex shaped bodies. For this purpose, the apparatus of the theory of variational inequalities is applied to deliver Kalker’s variational principle. In addition, a new principle for deriving multiple models of contact interaction of complex shaped bodies has been developed. It consists in gradually increasing the number of physical factors that are taken into account when building these models. This makes it possible to form a sequence of varied parametric models by taking into account new factors while naturally avoiding conflict situations. Furthermore it ensures inheritance in the sequence of models of different levels. The proposed improved approaches, models and methods are illustrated by the case study of the contact interaction of bodies with the intermediate layers located between them. Keywords: contact interaction, complex shaped body, finite element method, boundary element method, Kalker’s variational principle, variational inequalities