A finite element procedure for the analysis of thermo-mechanical solids in contact

We present a finite element procedure for the analysis of fully coupled thermo-elasto-plastic response of solids including contact conditions. The continuum mechanics formulation for the solid and contact conditions is summarized and effective finite element techniques for solution are given. The constraint function method is employed to impose the contact conditions at the Gauss points of the contact surface. Other procedures widely used in finite element analysis can be considered as particular cases of the constraint function method discussed herein.