CONTACT SHAPE OPTIMIZATION BASED ON THE RECIPROCAL VARIATIONAL FORMULATION

Abstract. The paper deals with a class of optimal shape design problems for elastic bodies unilaterally supported by a rigid foundation. Cost and constraint functionals defining the problem depend on contact stresses, i.e. their control is of primal interest. To this end, the so-called reciprocal variational formulation of contact problems making it possible to approximate directly the contact stresses is used. The existence and approximation results are established. The sensitivity analysis is carried out