Studies in Numerical Stability of Explicit Contact-impact Algorithm to the Finite Element Solution of Wave Propagation Problems

In dynamic transient analysis, recent comprehensive studies have shown that using mass penalty together with standard stiffness penalty, the so-called bipenalty technique, preserves the critical time step in conditionally stable time integration schemes. In this paper, the bipenalty approach is applied in the explicit contact-impact algorithm based on the pre-discretization penalty formulation. The attention is focused on the stability of this algorithm. Specifically, the upper estimation of the stable Courant number on the stiffness and mass penalty is derived based on the simple dynamic system with two degrees-of-freedom. The results are verified by means of the dynamic Signorini problem, which is represented by the motion of a bar that comes into contact with a rigid obstacle.