Abstract
This paper demonstrates the application of computational contact mechanics in geotechnical engineering. It first presents a general formulation of kinematic constraints for frictional contact and a general description of the associated numerical algorithms. These numerical algorithms are then used to analyse the stability of cantilever sheet-pile walls. It is shown that the finite element method incorporated with the modelling capacity for frictional contact is indeed very useful in geotechnical analysis and can provide solutions to problems that are otherwise difficult to solve.
