Abstract: ased on Katona’s work,a new type of contact friction interfacec clcment is presentd,in whichthe nodal contact stresses are taken as unkbnowns. The element can simulate frictional slippage, decoup-ling and re-bonding of two bodies initially mating at a common interface.The geometric and static con-straint conditions are treated as additonal conditions in this model.Using virtual displacement principle,the utilizable equivalent element stiffness-constraint matrix is obtained,and the symmetrizing techniquesis also given.The new element has the advantages of easy implementation into standard finite elementprograms and performs more stable in numericl computation.The tested contact friction block prob-lem shows a good agreement between the calculated results amd theoretical amalyses.As an applicationexample, effect of joints on concrete foundation is investigatd.