Formulation for the local contact problem between smooth convex NURBS particles

Resumo

The paper presents a formulation for the local contact problem between smooth convex particles whose
boundaries are defined by a set of non-uniform rational B-splines surfaces. By assuming a master-to-master
approach for the contact and an optimization scheme, the maximum penetration between particles is a minimum
of an objective function that gives a constrained distance between surfaces. This objective function is defined with
the aid of the Minkowski sum, configuration space obstacle and support mapping, which are concepts usually
employed on computer graphics. A numerical example shows the good behavior of the method in handling contact
between generic particle shapes. Comments on the numerical problems that can arise when generating particle
boundaries with multiple patches are also presented.