Specifying advanced search options for contact detection

The advanced search options provide an added level of control over the search range and the creation of contact pair surfaces. The general search options are sufficient in most cases; however, you may want to use the advanced options to account for unique modeling conditions. See Tips for using the contact detection tool, for a discussion of various modeling conditions and the recommended search techniques.

Related Topics
Understanding contact and constraint detection
Using contact and constraint detection

  1. From the main menu, select either InteractionFind contact pairs or ConstraintFind contact pairs.

    Tip: You can also find contact pairs using the tool in the Interaction module toolbox.

    Abaqus/CAE displays the contact detection dialog box.

  2. Display the Advanced tabbed page.

  3. By default, Abaqus/CAE merges any contact pairs whose adjacent surfaces lie within 20° of each other (for details on this calculation, see Additional criteria for defining contact pairs). You can adjust this angle by changing the value in the Merge pairs when surfaces are within angle field. To prevent the merging of adjacent contact pairs, toggle off Merge pairs when surfaces are within angle.

  4. By default, Abaqus/CAE includes overclosed and intersecting surfaces when searching for contact pairs. To ignore overclosed surfaces, toggle off Include overclosed surfaces. For details on how the automatic contact detection tool interprets overclosed surfaces, see Detection of overclosed surfaces.

  5. By default, Abaqus/CAE does not create a contact pair candidate if two surfaces are laterally offset from each other (i.e., the surface normals from either surface never intersect the opposite surface). To include these surfaces in the contact pair candidates table, toggle on Include opposing surfaces that do not overlap. Such surfaces must still meet the separation and orientation requirements for the search. See Additional criteria for defining contact pairs, for further discussion of this option.

  6. If your search includes part instances that have been meshed from geometry, indicate how Abaqus/CAE should interpret these instances during the search:

    • To treat the instances as geometry, select Geometry. Abaqus/CAE uses the Geometry option by default.

    • To treat the instances as element meshes, select Mesh.

    Tip: To detect contact between geometry and mesh instances, first mesh the geometry, then perform a mesh-based search.

    For a discussion of the differences between geometry and meshes, see Contact detection for meshed models.

  7. To save the current search parameters as defaults for future sessions of Abaqus/CAE, click (for more information, see Saving the search parameters). To reset saved search parameters to the original defaults, click .