Sparse approximations for contact mechanics

Low-rank model order reduction strategies for contact mechanics show limited dimensionality reduction due to linear inseparability of contact pressure field. Therefore, a dictionary based strategy is explored for creating efficient models for frictionless non-adhesive contact. A large dictionary of contact pressure trajectories is generated using a high-fidelity finite element model, while approximating the online query with a small number of dictionary entries. This is achieved by inducing sparsity in the approximation. Accuracy, computational effort and limitations of such methods are demonstrated on few numerical examples.