Detailed investigation of 3D frictional contact problems

CONTACT solves contact problems such as occur between wheel and rail, in roller bearings and in offset printing devices. It implements the theories for rolling contact by Prof.dr.ir. J.J. Kalker of Delft University of Technology.

  • identification of the size and shape of the contact area, and its subdivision into regions with adhesion and (micro-)slip;
  • determination of the normal and tangential surface stresses (tractions) in the contact area;
  • calculation of elastic displacements and subsurface stresses in the bodies' interiors;
  • for stationary and instationary, rolling and sliding problems;
  • for massive homogeneous bodies of elastic and visco-elastic materials;
  • with Hertzian and non-Hertzian, "smooth edged" geometries.
The latter two aspects make that the contact is "concentrated" in a small, almost flat part of the bodies' exteriors.

CONTACT aims to be the worlds fastest detailed contact model:

  • more detailed than fast approximations such as analytical formulae or the FASTSIM approach, and
  • faster than more complete models such as those based on Finite Element approaches.
CONTACT is maintained and extended by VORtech BV and Delft University of Technology. The (fully functional) basic version is freely available in binary form. An extended premium version with additional functionality is provided for a license fee.

Our latest paper on extension of CONTACT with so-called falling friction effects just appeared on line, see [Vollebregt2012a] on the publications page.

Our conference paper [Zhao2012a] on a new multi-grid approach received an honourable mention in the student best paper competition.