Stability and patch test performance are two important issues in¯uencing the selection of discretization algorithms for¯exible body contact problems. The patch test performance is dictated by the accuracy of evaluation of the contact integrals, not by the speci®c form of the gap, contact pressure, or contact surface de®nitions. Stability on the other hand, is related to the form of the assumed contact pressure distribution. In this paper, several commonly used contact algorithms are brie¯y summarized, and their stability in an inf±sup test and performance in a contact patch test are assessed. The existing algorithms do not satisfy both requirements. This fact has motivated the development of a new algorithm for¯exible body contact problems that results in a symmetric coecient matrix and satis®es both the stability and the contact patch conditions. Ó
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