Coupling of an isogeometric surface and bulk finite element discretization for contact problems
- This work aims at combining the advantages of both discretization procedures (IGA and FEM) by coupling an isogeometric contact surface with a bulk FE-discretization. The isogeometric contact interface is represented by a NURBS surface, which is tied to the FE mesh. For the discretization of the bulk parts, higher order spectral elements are used. The contact problem is discretized with the mortar method and a penalty approach is used to enforce the contact constraints. Two different types of coupling of the NURBS surface and the bulk part are considered: mortar and pointwise mesh tying. The mortar mesh tying approach shows accurate results, whereas the pointwise tying leads to large oscillations in the contact stresses. Element-based quadrature is applied for mortar tying, as well as for mortar contact discretizations. Using an isogeometric layer, the related quadrature error can be efficiently reduced by a higher degree interpolation or increased integration order.