Contact
In the Contact node, you define the mechanical and numerical properties for a set of contact pairs in a contact analysis. Use it for modeling structural contact and multiphysics contact. In the latter case, you will also need to add corresponding pair conditions in the other participating physics interfaces.
In the contact pair, the destination side selection must be part of the physics interface in which you add the Contact node. The source side selection can be any kind of meshed object, but if it is part of the current physics interface, more options are made available..
The contact formulation in the Layered Shell interface has the following limitations:
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Only frictionless contact can be modeled. You cannot add the Friction, Adhesion, or Decohesion subnodes under Contact.
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The contact formulation works best if the laminate is thin and the curvature is not too high. Local deformations caused by the contact pressure, such as thickness change, should be small.
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The best accuracy is obtained when the Contact surface is set to Top and the position of the layered material is Upside on boundary.
Contact Surface
If the source side of the contact pair is not part of the current physics interface, select Source external to current physics. When selected, only the location of the mesh on the source side is taken into account when evaluating the contact.
If Source external to current physics is selected and the source selection intersects with the physics selection, the warning Source boundary internal to the current physics detected, even though the ‘Source external to current physics’ check box is selected. is displayed. If you are using a Shell, Layered Shell or Membrane interface on the source boundary, this situation means that any offset or thickness properties given on that selection is ignored by the contact.
The opposite situation, when the source boundary selection is not within the current physics interface, and Source external to current physics is not selected, is also problematic. That could cause some variables to become undefined. In this case, the following error is thrown: Source boundary external to the current physics detected, but the 'Source external to current physics' check box is not selected. If the source selection contains boundaries which are both external and internal to the current physics, an error is always thrown.
For Contact surface, destination and Contact surface, source, select Top or Bottom. The top side is the one with an outward pointing normal vector.
All other sections and settings for the Contact node are described in the documentation for Contact in the Solid Mechanics interface.
Location in User Interface
Context Menus
Layered Shell>Pairs>Contact
Ribbon
Physics tab with Layered Shell selected:
Pairs>Contact