A coupled finite element formulation for chemo-mechano-thermodynamical contact and its application to bonding and debonding
2026-06-10 • Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
AI summaryⓘ
The authors developed a computer method to simulate how two materials stick together, heat up, and deform when pressed or pulled. They build on a previous theory that considers deformation, temperature, and chemical bonds at the surfaces in contact. Their method models how bonding forms and breaks while interacting with mechanical forces and temperature changes, using mathematical tools to solve these complex interactions. They tested their approach on different cases like heat-producing bonding reactions and thermal expansion to show how flexible their model is. The work includes technical details for implementing the method efficiently on computers.
finite element methodcontact mechanicslarge deformationthermodynamicschemo-mechanical couplingbonding and debondingNewton-Raphson methodisogeometric analysisenergy dissipationimplicit time integration
Authors
Roger A. Sauer
Abstract
This work presents a finite element formulation for coupled chemo-mechano-thermodynamical large deformation contact. The formulation is based on the contact theory of Sauer et al. (2022) that contains six coupled (but separate) fields: the deformation and temperature of the two contacting bodies, as well as an interfacial bonding field and interfacial temperature. The latter is governed by the chemical and mechanical energy dissipation at the interface. Here the focus is placed on the evolution of bonding and debonding, and how it is coupled to the mechanical and thermal contact state. Several elementary models are proposed for this based on a quadratic contact potential. The resulting contact formulation becomes very general and versatile, which is illustrated by several challenging examples. They include pressure- and gap- depended bonding, exothermic bonding reactions, thermal hardening and thermal expansion, as well as simultaneous bonding and debonding. They are based on a monolithic finite element implementation using classical and isogeometric shape functions together with implicit time integration. Its full linearization, required for the Newton-Raphson solution method, is also provided. If bonding sites are material points, the bonding variable can be condensed-out locally.