Finite element analysis of a static contact problem with Coulomb friction (Q700933)

The paper deals with existence analysis of discrete contact problems obeying Coulomb's law of friction. Finite elements are used for defining the respective discrete formulations. The first part of the paper is devoted to the case when the coefficient \(\Phi \) of Coulomb friction does not depend on the solution itself. The existence proof is based on a fixed point technique. The author proves that the discrete problem has a solution for any finite value of \(\Phi\), and for values small enough this solution is unique. The bound on \(\Phi \) ensuring the uniqueness of the solution is mesh-dependent. The second part treats the case of \(\Phi \) depending on the tangential component of displacement field. For this type of problem, a penalty and regularization techniques are used in order to prove that the discrete model has at least one solution.