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The paper is devoted to the analysis of two- or three-dimensional contact problems with Coulomb friction and large deformation. The classical approach is based on two minimum principles or two variational inequalities: the first for unilateral contact and the second for friction. A coupled approach using only one principle or one inequality is presented. This new approach allows us to extend the notion of normality law to dissipative behaviors with a non-associated flow rule, such as surface friction. Non-differentiable contact potentials are regularized by means of the augmented Lagrangian method. Using the C++ language, an object-oriented finite element database is created, which allows us to implement the contact and friction in an existing code in a very simple and neat way. Numerical examples are carried out in many difficult cases such as shock absorber and three-dimensional contact. The numerical results prove that this approach is robust and efficient concerning numerical stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I re-examine the mechanics of the residual bending flexibility correction and show that it is an extravariational trick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we present a superconvergent patch recovery technique for obtaining higher-order-accurate finite-element solutions and thus a postprocessed type of L2 norm error estimate. Two modifications make our procedure different from the one proposed by Zienkiewicz and Zhu (1992), in which higher- order-accurate derivatives of the finite-element solution at nodes are determined. Firstly, the recovery process is made for elements, not for nodes. An 'element patch', which represents the union of an element under consideration and the surrounding elements, is introduced. Secondly, the local error estimate is calculated directly from the improved solution for this element. Numerical tests on both 1D and 2D model problems show that this method can provide an asymptotically exact a posteriori L2 norm error estimate if the used element possesses superconvergent points for the solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the solution of the quasi-harmonic equation by the finite element method in a domain with corners on its boundary. A mapping technique, which can be used for locating the nodes of standard isoparametric elements in a subgrid (patch) of finite elements in the vicinity of a corner singularity point, is presented. The equations of the mapping are based on the analytical singular solution of the problem. Some analytical and numerical results to show the efficiency of the technique are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]