Contact Problems

L.A. Galin’s book on contact problems is a remarkable work. Actually there are two books: the first, published in 1953 deals with contact problems in the classical theory of elasticity; this is the one that was translated into English in 1961. The second book, published in 1980, included the first, and then had new sections on contact problems for viscoelastic materials, and rough contact problems; this section has not previously been translated into English. In this new translation, the original text and the mathematical analysis have been completely revised, new material has been added, and the material appearing in the 1980 Russian translation has been completely rewritten. In addition there are three essays by students of Galin, bringing the analysis up to date.

The book gives an overview on formulation, mathematical analysis and numerical solution procedures of contact problems. In this respect the book should be of value to applied mathematicians and engineers who are concerned with contact mechanics.

This book presents a comprehensive treatment of recently developed scalable algorithms for solving multibody contact problems of linear elasticity. The brand-new feature of these algorithms is their theoretically supported numerical scalability (i.e., asymptotically linear complexity) and parallel scalability demonstrated in solving problems discretized by billions of degrees of freedom. The theory covers solving multibody frictionless contact problems, contact problems with possibly orthotropic Tresca’s friction, and transient contact problems. In addition, it also covers BEM discretization, treating jumping coefficients, floating bodies, mortar non-penetration conditions, etc. This second edition includes updated content, including a new chapter on hybrid domain decomposition methods for huge contact problems. Furthermore, new sections describe the latest algorithm improvements, e.g., the fast reconstruction of displacements, the adaptive reorthogonalization of dual constraints, and an updated chapter on parallel implementation. Several chapters are extended to give an independent exposition of classical bounds on the spectrum of mass and dual stiffness matrices, a benchmark for Coulomb orthotropic friction, details of discretization, etc. The exposition is divided into four parts, the first of which reviews auxiliary linear algebra, optimization, and analysis. The most important algorithms and optimality results are presented in the third chapter. The presentation includes continuous formulation, discretization, domain decomposition, optimality results, and numerical experiments. The final part contains extensions to contact shape optimization, plasticity, and HPC implementation. Graduate students and researchers in mechanical engineering, computational engineering, and applied mathematics will find this book of great value and interest.

The aim of this book is to describe an efficient procedure to model dynamical contact problems with friction. This procedure is applied to different practical problems and validated by experiments. Friction contacts are used to transmit forces or to dissipate energy. Examples for dynamical engineering systems with friction are brakes, machine tools, motors, turbines, bearings or wheel-rail systems. A better understanding of friction phenomena can result in improvements like the reduction of noise and maintenance costs, increased life time of machines and improved energy efficiency. Dependent on the features of the friction contact, different contact models and solution methods are applied.

The mathematical analysis of contact problems, with or without friction, is an area where progress depends heavily on the integration of pure and applied mathematics. This book presents the state of the art in the mathematical analysis of unilateral contact problems with friction, along with a major part of the analysis of dynamic contact problems

This book contains contributions from leading researchers in biomechanics, nanomechanics, tribology, contact mechanics, materials science and applications on various experimental techniques including atomic force microscopy (AFM) for studying soft, biomimetic and biological materials and objects. Biologists, physicists, researchers applying methods of contact mechanics and researchers testing materials using indentation techniques along with many other applied scientists will find this book a useful addition to their libraries. Moreover, several reviews in this book are written as introductions to several important and rather sophisticated research areas such as depth-sensing indentation, studying of biological cells by AFM probes, mechanics of adhesive contact and contact between viscoelastic (hereditary elastic) solids. The book containing new theoretical models, results of experimental studies and numerical simulations, along with reviews of above mentioned areas of contact mechanics in application to biological systems, would be beneficial for researchers in many areas of biology, medicine, engineering, mechanics and biomimetics.

In recent years there has been heightened interest in the clinical and legal management of families in which children resist contact with one parent and become aligned with the other following divorce. Families affected by these dynamics require disproportionate resources and time from mental health and legal professionals, and cases require a specialized clinical approach. Traditional models of individual and family therapy are not designed to address these issues, and strategies and resources for mental health and legal professionals have been extremely limited. Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems describes interventions for families experiencing a high conflict divorce impasse where a child is resisting contact with a parent. It examines in detail one such intervention, the Overcoming Barriers approach, involving the entire family and combining psycho-education and clinical intervention. The book is divided into two parts: Part I presents an overview of parental alienation, including clinical approaches and a critical analysis of the many challenges associated with traditional outpatient family-based interventions. Part II presents the Overcoming Barriers approach, describing core aspects of the intervention and ways to adapt its clinical techniques to outpatient practice. Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems is geared toward mental health clinicians and legal professionals who work with families in high conflict and where a child resists visitation with a parent.