Finite Element Analysis of Contact Force Models During Solid Elastic and Plastic Bodies Impact

There are many models of impact used to predict the post-impact conditions of a system and all of them are based on Hertz’s theory, dated from the nineteenth century, where the repulsive force is proportional to the deformation of the bodies under contact and may also be proportional to the rate of deformation. The objective of this work is to analyze the behavior of the bodies during impact using some contact models and compare the results to a Finite Element Method model. The main parameters which will be evaluated are the body velocities, the contact force and the deformation of the bodies. An advantage of using the Finite Element Method is the possibility to apply plastic deformation to the model according to material definition. In the present study, it will be used Johnson–Cook plasticity model where the parameters are obtained based on empirical tests of real materials. Thus, it is possible to compare the behavior of elastic and plastic numerical models with the finite element model and to verify how these models reproduce the impact between solid bodies.