Contact between shear-deformable beams with elliptical cross-sections

Slender constituents are present in many structures and materials. In associated mechanical models, each slender constituent is often described with a beam. Contact between beams is essential to incorporate in mechanical models, but associated contact frameworks are only demonstrated to work for beams with circular cross-sections. Only two studies have shown the ability to treat contact between beams with elliptical cross-sections, but those frameworks are limited to point-wise contact, which narrows their applicability. This contribution presents initial results of a framework for shear-deformable beams with elliptical cross-sections if contact occurs along a line or at an area (instead of at a point). This is achieved by integrating a penalty potential over one of the beams’ surfaces. Simo-Reissner Geometrically Exact Beam (GEB) elements are employed to discretise each beam. As the surface of an assembly of such beam elements is discontinuous, a smoothed surface is introduced to formulate the contact kinematics. This enables the treatment of contact for large sliding displacements and substantial deformations.