Dear all,

On Tuesday December 3rd to Thursday December 5th, 2013, we will organise a course on rolling contact mechanics using the CONTACT software at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The aims of the course are:

• to provide a general background in contact mechanics, describe the main physical phenomena;
• to present the modeling employed in CONTACT: what it is, how it works, and what it
  can and cannot do;
• to provide practice and experience in the use of the software: create your own input-files, and explore the output results.

For more information see the full announcement/registration form or visit our website www.kalkersoftware.org .

Best regards,

Edwin Vollebregt

Dear all,

Herewith I want to announce the release of the frictional rolling contact model CONTACT version 13.1.

The main changes with respect to earlier versions of the program are as follows:

• Added support for dealing with conformal contact situations, going beyond the traditional half-space approach.
• Extended the model with an interfacial layer of contaminants, changing the friction behavior in the contact patch.

For the full release-notes or more information on the program refer to the website www.kalkersoftware.org.

Regards, Edwin

Dear all,

Herewith I want to announce the release of the frictional rolling contact model CONTACT version 12.1.

The main changes with respect to earlier versions of the program are as follows:

• Achieved a 100-fold speedup for solving larger normal contact problems.
• Improved the documentation of the viscoelastic part of CONTACT and
  provided an example of its use.
• Distinguished free and premium features in the software, the latter
  requiring a valid license file.

For the full release-notes or more information on the program refer to the website www.kalkersoftware.org.

Regards, Edwin

Dear all,

At our website we maintain a list of upcoming conferences on contact mechanics and related fields, e.g. solid mechanics, tribology, railway vehicle dynamics, etc.

Which conferences and other events do you attend? Send me a note and I'll add them to the list.

Best wishes,

Edwin Vollebregt

Dear all,

On Monday January 30th to Wednesday February 1st, 2012, we will organise a
course on using the CONTACT software at Delft University of Technology
in the Netherlands.

The aims of the course are:

• to provide a general background in contact mechanics, describe the main physical phenomena;
• to present the mathematical model employed in CONTACT, the assumptions and equations used: what it is, how it works, and what it can and cannot do;
• to provide practice and experience in the use of the software: create your own input-files, and explore the output results.

For more information see the full announcement/registration form or visit our website www.kalkersoftware.org .

Best regards,

Edwin Vollebregt

Herewith I announce to you that we created a discussion forum for topics related to our contact mechanics software on our website
www.kalkersoftware.org .
The idea is to facilitate discussions and information exchange between users,
and between users and developers.

As a start I initiated two topics:
1) collect pointers to interesting information sources w.r.t. (rolling)
contact mechanics;
2) discuss the possible extension of CONTACT w.r.t. more elaborate friction laws.

With best wishes,
Edwin Vollebregt

Dear all,

Herewith I want to announc the release of CONTACT version 10.2.

The main changes with respect to earlier versions of the program are as follows:

• Added an installer for the Windows platform, and a plain graphical user interface, the CONTACT GUI
  (beta).
• Added detailed control over the undeformed distance of the two bodies.
• Added more information on and an example for transient rolling problems.
• Resolved a problem in the calculation of problems for bodies with dissimilar materials.
  

For more information on the program and the updates refer to the website www.kalkersoftware.org.

Regards, Edwin

Dear all,

The programme for the course on "Contact mechanics with the CONTACT software", to be held October 28th-29th 2010 in Delft, the Netherlands, is now available via the registration form on our website www.kalkersoftware.org.

Best regards,

Edwin Vollebregt

Dear all,

On Thursday 28th and Friday 29th of October 2010, we will organise a course on using the CONTACT software at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The aims of the course are:

• to provide a general background in contact mechanics;
• to present the mathematical model employed in CONTACT: what it is, how it works, and what it can and cannot do;
• to provide practice and experience in the use of the software: create your own input-files, and explore the output results.

For more information see the registration form or visit our website www.kalkersoftware.org.

Best regards,

Edwin Vollebregt

Dear all,

Herewith I would like to announce that we have decided to make our CONTACT software publicly available. You can obtain a free copy at the web-site www.kalkersoftware.org. We hope that the software is beneficial to you. We further hope that you give us helpful feedback in return.

This CONTACT software concerns Prof. J.J. Kalker's variational theory for rolling contact. It is particularly suited for the detailed study of the traction and slip distributions in the contact zone. It is restricted to homogeneous bodies of elastic and visco-elastic materials and to concentrated contact", i.e. with essentially flat geometries in and near the contact zone. The main type of application concerns the wheel/rail interface. The program uses a boundary element approach with analytic influence coefficients. As such it is much faster than finite element approaches.

For more details on the program, its user guide and a list of publications refer to the web-site.

With best wishes,

Edwin Vollebregt