Contact mechanics with Python. This code implements computation of contact geometry and pressure of a rigid object on a flat elastic half-space. All calculations assume small deformations; in that limit, the contact of any two objects of arbitrary geometry and elastic moduli can be mapped on that of a rigid indenter on an elastic flat.

The methods that are implemented in this code are described in various papers:

• Fast-Fourier transform (FFT) for the computation of elastic deformation of periodic substrates.
  • Stanley, Kato, J. Tribol. 119, 481 (1997)
  • Campana, Müser, Phys. Rev. B 74, 075420 (2006)
  • Pastewka, Sharp, Robbins, Phys. Rev. B 86, 075459 (2012)
• Decoupling of images for non-periodic calculation with the FFT.
  • Hockney, Methods Comput. Phys. 9, 135 (1970)
  • Liu, Wang, Liu, Wear 243, 101 (2000)
  • Pastewka, Robbins, Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 221601 (2016)
• Fast solution of nonadhesive, hard-wall interactions.
  • Polonsky, Keer, Wear 231, 206 (1999)
• Contact plasticity.
  • Almqvist, Sahlin, Larsson, Glavatskih, Tribol. Int. 40, 574 (2007)
  • Weber, Suhina, Junge, Pastewka, Brouwer, Bonn, Nature Comm. 9, 888 (2018)

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Sphinx-generated documentation can be found here.

Quick install with: python3 -m pip install ContactMechanics

The package requires :

• numpy - https://www.numpy.org/
• NuMPI - https://github.com/imtek-simulation/numpi
• muSpectre - https://gitlab.com/muspectre/muspectre
• SurfaceTopography - https://github.com/ContactEngineering/SurfaceTopography

Optional dependencies:

• runtests - https://github.com/bccp/runtests

Development of this project is funded by the European Research Council within Starting Grant 757343 and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within projects PA 2023/2 and EXC 2193.