Implementation of the Nitsche approach for various contact kinematics

Numerical approaches are in case of contact problems mainly dealing with additional terms enforcing constraints. Within the Nitsche approach the inclusion of constraints for the non-penetration and equilibrium of stresses of the contacting bodies is carried out in a fully variational sense. Taking into account a specific choice and the physical meaning of the encountered Lagrange multipliers two different schemes for the Nitsche formulation are obtained. Both types of the Nitsche approach are implemented in a nonlinear element and verification with numerical examples is done. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)