An asymptotic numerical method to solve compliant Lennard-Jones-based contact problems involving adhesive instabilities

Abstract

For compliant adhesive contact problems based on the Lennard-Jones potential, the non-convexity of the latter leads to jump-in and jump-off instabilities which can hardly be traced by using classical algorithms. In this work, we combine an adapted Asymptotic Numerical Method (ANM) and the multiscale Arlequin method to trace efficiently these instabilities. The ANM is used to trace the entire unstable solution path in a branch-by-branch manner. The Arlequin method is used to achieve a refined resolution in the vicinity of the contact surface and to reduce possible spurious numerical oscillations due to coarse surface discretizations. Numerical results, validated by comparison with available ones, reveal the accuracy, efficiency and robustness of the proposed global methodology.