Accurate and consistent FE modelling of soft docking of micro/nano paired-satellites using variational inequalities

Time-dependent variational inequality-based formulations describing the behavior of elastodynamic contact problems have been used to model the soft docking of micro/nano paired-satellites. The solution strategy is based upon the iterative use of two subproblems. In the first subproblem, the technique of Quadratic Programming was used to predict the contact surface and the stresses acting on it. In the second subproblem, the technique of Lagrange multipliers was used to impose the boundary conditions and contact constraint obtained in step I. The solution accounts for the effect of friction through the use of an appropriate regularization technique in the virtual work expressions. The accuracy of the proposed variational inequality (VI) model of the soft docking process is validated by comparing the VI results with commercially available software. Finally, the effects of the bending stiffness of the docking probe, the friction between the candidate contact surfaces are investigated and analyzed using the newly developed model.