An H-matrix Type Preconditioner For Frictional Contact Problems

The bilateral or unilateral contact problem with Coulomb friction between two elastic bodies is considered [1]. An algorithm is introduced to solve the resulting finite element system by a non‐overlapping domain decomposition method [2, 3]. The global problem is transformed to a independant local problems posed in each bodie and a problem posed on the contact surface (the interface problem). The solution is obtained by using a successive approximation method, in each step of this algorithm we solve two intermediate problems the first with prescribed tangential pressure and the second with prescribed normal pressure [8]. Our preconditioner construction is based on the application of the H‐matrix technique [6, 7] together with the representation of the H1/2 seminorm by a sum of partial seminorms [4]. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)