A massless boundary component mode synthesis method for elastodynamic contact problems

Abstract: We propose to combine the ideas of mass redistribution and component mode synthesis. More specifically, we employ the MacNeal method, which readily leads to a singular mass matrix, and an accordingly modified version of the Craig-Bampton method. Besides obtaining a massless boundary, we achieve a drastic reduction of the mathematical model order in this way compared to the parent finite element model. Contact is modeled using set-valued laws and time stepping is carried out with a semi-explicit scheme. We assess the method's computational performance by a series of benchmarks, including both frictionless and frictional contact. The results indicate that the proposed method achieves excellent energy conservation properties and superior convergence behavior. It reduces the spurious oscillations and decreases the computational effort by about 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to the current state of the art (mass-carrying component mode synthesis method). We believe that the computational performance and favorable energy conservation properties will be valuable for the prediction of vibro-impact processes and physical damping.