New edge-to-edge contact calculating algorithm in three-dimensional discrete numerical analysis

SummaryThis article presents a new edge-to-edge contact calculating algorithm for the three-dimensional (3-D) discrete element analysis. In this algorithm, the edge-to-edge contacts are simply transformed to be vertex-to-face ones, which are the basic 3-D contact pattern in discrete element analysis. The contact transformation reduces the complexity of the 3-D contact calculations and improves the efficiency of calculation procedure, in comparison with the conventional edge-to-edge contact algorithm. The algorithm has been successfully programmed in C.