Non-interior smoothing algorithm for frictional contact problems

A new algorithm for solving the three-dimensional elastic contact problem with friction is presented. The algorithm is a non-interior smoothing algorithm based on an NCP-function. The parametric variational principle and parametric quadratic programming method were applied to the analysis of three-dimensional frictional contact problem. The solution of the contact problem was finally reduced to a linear complementarity problem, which was reformulated as a system of nonsmooth equations via an NCP-function. A smoothing approximation to the nonsmooth equations was given by the aggregate function. A Newton method was used to solve the resulting smoothing nonlinear equations. The algorithm presented is easy to understand and implement. The reliability and efficiency of this algorithm are demonstrated both by the numerical experiments of LCP in mathematical way and the examples of contact problems in mechanics.