b'Repeated dynamic excitation causes wear on the cladding outer surface. Wear profile and depth are heavily influenced by the shape of contacting surfaces and severity of contact, which may be determined by internal fuel-cladding mechanical interaction.PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION:Recuero, A., A. Lindsay, On practical aspects of variational consistency in contact dynamics, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) IDETC/CIE Conference, St. Louis, MO, Aug. 14-17, 2022.AWARD:Best paper award at ASME IDETC/CIE 2022 Multibody Systems and Nonlinear Dynamics, St. Louis, MO, United States of America.47'