Contact Problems
The software supports contact conditions
for static, nonlinear, dynamic, drop test, and thermal studies of assemblies
and multibodies. For static and nonlinear studies, you can consider the
effect of friction between the contacting faces. A Connections
icon appears in the Simulation study tree of such studies. The options
Contact Sets and Component
Contact refer to options related to contact. For thermal studies,
you can simulate thermal
contact resistance.
Studies with contact conditions take longer solution times than similar
problems without contact conditions. An additional time is needed if the
large
displacement flag is activated in the properties of a static
study since the load is gradually increased.
Static studies can be used to solve contact problems only if no other
nonlinearities are present. Otherwise, you must create nonlinear studies.
You can drag contact definitions from static studies to nonlinear studies
and vice versa. Make sure that these contact definitions are available
to both study types.
By default, the software assumes that assembly components are bonded
at their contacting boundaries. The user interface provides global, component,
and local options to define contact conditions. Global settings apply
where no component or local settings are defined. See here for automatic bonding between touching entities.
Component settings apply unless local settings are specified.
The local surface (face-to-face) contact condition allows you to simulate
thermal contact resistance for thermal studies. A shrink fit
contact condition is provided to simulate shrink fit problems.
Contact conditions are represented by the mesh. A change in contact
conditions requires remeshing the model.
For more information, refer to the Meshing
section.