Integrated adaptive element free Galerkin model for elastoplastic contact of engineering surfaces

Abstract

This paper presents an h-adaptive element free Galerkin (EFG) model and its formulation based on stain energy gradient for solving elastoplastic contact problems. In this model, the element free Galerkin finite element (EFG–FE) coupling method uses the initial stiffness method, and an error estimation approach based on strain energy gradient and a local adaptive refinement strategy are combined. Two-dimensional elastic contact problem between a rigid cylinder and an elastic plane is analysed to validate the adaptive elastoplastic EFG model. The results indicate that the adaptively refined solutions are accurate as compared to the Hertz theoretical solution or the uniformly refined solutions, while the cost of CPU time used by the adaptive model is less than that by the uniformly refined model under the same condition. Furthermore, the elastoplastic contacts involving a rough surface of elastic perfectly plastic and elastoplastic properties are investigated.