Abstract:A new type of contact element,two-node contact element (TCE),is proposed. The TCE is composed of two nodes and its impacting domain. Because it doesn′t use the interpolation method as the traditional joint element does,but employs the impacting function as its interpolation function;it shows considerable flexibility in dealing with the more complex joint cases. It means that the mechanical behavior of one small joint section,which possesses one contacted node-couple,is only determined by the behavior of its own contacted node-couple,and is not related to the behavior of node-couples of other joint sections. The special constitution of TCE makes its application more extensive. TCE stiffness matrix is deduced. At last,the proposed method is employed to model a simple jointed rock mass,then the numerical results from TCE is compared with that from traditional 4-node joint element. The comparison shows that a well agreement exists between the two methods,which indicates that the proposed method is valid and applicable.