Analysis of contact of elastic rods subject to large displacements

International audienceWe present a mathematical model for describing motion of two elastic rods in contact. The model allows for large displacements and is essentially based on {\sc Cosserat}'s modeling of rods. Existence of a static solution is proved in the case of a unique rod using a penalty technique. The contact modeling involves unilateral constraints on the central lines of the rods. Existence is also proved for this contact problem