A smart interfacing method based on domain/boundary decomposition for efficient thermo-elasto-viscoplastic damage and contact analysis

A smart interfacing method based on domain/boundary decomposition is presented for the non-linear analysis of thermo-elastoviscoplastic damage and contact. The smart interfacing method provides adaptive reinterfacing of the subdomains and the interface as a result of changes in the viscoplasticity and damage level. Since the whole domain is divided into subdomains, interface, and contact interfaces, non-linear analyses of the problems can be localized within a few subdomains and on the contact interfaces. For the continuity constraints on the interface and the contact interfaces, a penalty method is applied to the variational formulations and finite element approximations. By applying suitable solution algorithms and adopting the smart interfacing method, the computational efficiency can be considerably improved. The important features of the proposed method were also evaluated through numerical experiments.