Finite Element Analysis of a Contact With Friction Between an Elastic Body and a Thin Soft Layer

When studying a mechanical system involving contact between two bodies such as a disc and brake pad system, finite element simulations are often used to predict the phenomena involved. However, due to model size and calculation time problems, when modeling this type of mechanical system on a scale of about 100 mm, it is difficult to model as well a layer (for example a third body layer) on a scale of approximately 10 μm. In quasi-static problems it is possible to simulate the contact between an elastic body and a thin elastic layer bonded to a rigid surface, by considering the contact between this elastic body and a rigid surface with a specific contact law. This paper shows that it is possible to implement this specific contact law in a dynamic finite element code to simulate thin layers undergoing quasi-static and dynamic problems without physical contact instabilities. This specific contact law saves a large amount of calculation time. Once the specific contact law has been validated, the influence of the layer thickness is studied.