On augmented Lagrangian algorithms for thermomechanical contact problems with friction

The detailed discretization of contact zones with contact stiffness based on real physical characteristics of contact surfaces can produce stiffness terms which induce ill-conditioning of the global stiffness matrix. Moreover the consistent treatment of frictional behaviour generates non-symmetric tangent stiffness matrices due to the non-associativity of the slip phase. Other non-symmetries are due to the coupling terms and to the dependencies on various parameters that can be involved. To overcome these difficulties almost consistent techniques based on two-step algorithms have been proposed in the past. Here an augmentation technique is proposed which takes into account micro-mechanical effects, and permits the symmetrization of the tangent stiffness during frictional slip phase.