Finite element analysis of steadily moving contact fields

By introducing a moving updated Lagrangian observer, this paper develops traveling finite elements with the capacity to handle the global response resulting from steadily moving contact fields. The generality of the results is such that large deformation kinematics and kinetics as well as the full compliment of inertial fields can be handled. To streamline the handling of nonlinear behavior, an elliptically constrained solution algorithm is also developed. Employing this algorithm, the results of several numerical benchmarking studies are presented which illustrate the capacity of the moving updated Lagrangian formulation as well as the potential effects of nonlinearity.