4. Summary of results

In this test case, the two contact surfaces are not flat. The normal therefore changes from one mesh to another. This discontinuity creates matching problems that have a great influence on the calculation. Among these problems, we find the asymmetrization problem, i.e. finding results that do not respect the symmetry of the problem. For this test case, the problem is perfectly symmetric (geometries, boundary conditions and loading) along the \(y\) axis. Without regularization of the normal an asymmetry appears on axis \(x\). In fact, the horizontal displacements of the points \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) which are located on the y axis then have non-zero values that do not respect the overall symmetry of the problem.

With the regularization of the normal, the solution obtained using the continuous method perfectly respects the symmetry. However, it should be noted that the gibi mesh, used in this test case, does not give a perfectly symmetric mesh and that rounding problems very slightly deteriorate the quality of the solution.

This problem is addressed with method CONTINUE, from the CONTACT keyword. The integration is done at the level of the nodes of the mesh. Particular attention to the choice of potential contact zones should be taken into account in these problems of non-flat surfaces.