Abstract
In this paper, we apply a smoothing technique to solve contact problems using a segment-to-segment formulation based on the mortar method. In contact smoothing the C 0 finite element description of the geometry is replaced by an improved smoothed one (usually with C 1 continuity). So far these techniques have been applied to solve contact problems based on node-to-segment interaction. Some numerical examples are solved to compare the performance of the smoothing and non-smoothing formulations. The examples show that the non-smoothed mortar formulation is improved mainly for problems with matching curved surfaces discretized with non-conforming meshes.
