The symmetric Boundary Element Method for unilateral contact problems

On the basis of the boundary integral equation method, in its symmetric formulation, the frictionless unilateral contact between two elastic bodies has been studied. A boundary discretization by boundary elements leads to an algebraic formulation in the form of a linear complementarity problem. In this paper the process of contact or detachment is obtained through a step by step analysis by using generalized (weighted) quantities as the check elements: the detachment or the contact phenomenon may happen when the weighted traction or the weighted displacement is greater than the weighted cohesion or weighted minimum reference gap, respectively. The applications are performed by using the Karnak.sGbem program made by some of the authors of this paper.