A surface-to-surface contact definition can be used as an
alternative to general contact to model contact interactions between specific
surfaces in a model.
Certain interaction behaviors can be defined only by using
surface-to-surface contact. For a brief overview of surface-to-surface contact
and other types of interactions available in
Abaqus,
see
Understanding interactions,
and
About contact interactions.
You can define surface-to-surface contact in any step, including the
initial step. Select
InteractionCreate
from the main menu bar, and select the master and slave surfaces. You can
define contact between edges of a wire or between faces of a solid or shell.
Certain connectivity restrictions apply to contact surfaces depending on the
type of contact formulation. You can deactivate a surface-to-surface contact
interaction in a step and, if desired, reactivate this interaction in a
subsequent step. You can deactivate the interaction in a step if it will no
longer be needed in the analysis.
If you are creating multiple surface-to-surface contact interactions, you
may want to use the contact detection tool. This tool automates the process of
selecting surfaces and allows you to create multiple interactions
simultaneously. For more information, see
Using contact and constraint detection.
You can obtain contact data for a specific surface-to-surface contact
interaction by using the field and history output request editors in the
Step module.
In the Domain section of the editors, select
Interaction and choose the name of the surface-to-surface
contact interaction from the menu that appears. For more information, see
Creating an output request.
The procedure for defining surface-to-surface contact depends on whether
you are performing an analysis using
Abaqus/Standard
or
Abaqus/Explicit.
This section provides instructions for using the interaction editor to define
the different surface-to-surface contact options.