Isogeometric contact: a review

AbstractThis paper reviews the currently available computational contact formulations within the framework of isogeometric analysis (IGA). As opposed to conventional Lagrange discretizations, IGA basis functions feature higher and tailorable inter‐element continuity, which translates into evident advantages for the description of interacting surfaces, especially in presence of large displacements and large sliding. This has recently motivated the proposal of several isogeometric contact treatments, based on different ways to incorporate the contact contribution into the variational form of a continuum mechanics problem and to formulate its discretized version. After a brief overview of conventional and isogeometric basis functions as well as conventional contact mechanics approaches, the available isogeometric contact formulations are examined. Attention is paid to the favorable and unfavorable features they share with their finite element counterparts, as well as to the consequences stemming from the use of IGA basis functions. The main needs for future research emerging from the current state of the art are outlined. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)