Specifying master-slave assignments for general contact

Attributes for a general contact interaction, such as contact formulation, are specified independently of the contact domain in the Attribute Assignments portion of the interaction editor. By default, Abaqus/Standard automatically assigns a master and a slave role to each surface in an interacting pair; Abaqus/Explicit uses a balanced master-slave formulation for all surfaces (except node-based surfaces and analytical rigid surfaces). You can override the default assignments and directly specify the master-slave assignments for surface pairings in a general contact interaction.

Related Topics
Interaction editors
Defining general contact
In Other Guides
Numerical controls for general contact in Abaqus/Standard
Contact formulation for general contact in Abaqus/Explicit

Context:

For a brief overview of general contact, see Understanding interactions. For a more detailed discussion of master-slave formulations, see Numerical controls for general contact in Abaqus/Standard; and Contact formulation for general contact in Abaqus/Explicit.

  1. Display the general contact interaction editor using one of the following methods:

    • To create a new general contact interaction, follow the instructions in Defining general contact.

    • To edit an existing general contact interaction, select InteractionEditinteraction name from the main menu bar.

  2. Click the Contact Formulation tab in the Attribute Assignments portion of the interaction editor.

  3. Click next to the following field:

    • Master-slave assignments for Abaqus/Standard general contact definitions.

    • Pure master-slave assignments for Abaqus/Explicit general contact definitions.

    The Edit Master-Slave Assignments dialog box appears. By default, when you select a surface from the list or the table, Abaqus/CAE highlights the surface in the viewport; however, highlighting does not apply for (Global) and (Self). You can toggle off Highlight selected regions at the bottom of the dialog box to turn off selection highlighting.

  4. Select one or more surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the first column on the left side. Select (Global) to assign a pure master-slave weighting for contact between the entire contact domain and an individual surface.

    Tip: You can click to define a new surface and add it to the list. See Creating surfaces, for instructions on defining surfaces.

  5. Select the second surface or surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the second column to define the surface pairings.

    • When multiple surfaces are selected in either column, all possible combinations will be generated.

    • For Abaqus/Standard general contact definitions, select either the same surface name or (Self) in the second column to specify a balanced master-slave formulation for self-contact interactions on a particular surface.

    • If the master and slave surfaces overlap, self-contact is excluded for the overlapping regions.

  6. Click the arrows in the middle of the dialog box to transfer your selections to the list of master-slave assignments.

    The table on the right side of the dialog box is updated to reflect your selections.

  7. Specify the type for the first surface in the last column of the Master-Slave Assignments table.

    • Select SLAVE to indicate the first surface is the slave surface.

    • Select MASTER to indicate the first surface is the master surface.

    • Select BALANCED to specify balanced master-slave contact between the two surfaces (available only in Abaqus/Standard).

    For self-contact surface pairings, you must select BALANCED.

  8. Repeat the above steps as needed to complete the master-slave assignments. If you want to delete master-slave assignments, select the rows and click .

  9. Click OK to save your selections.

    The interaction editor reappears with updated information on the number of directly specified master-slave assignments.

  10. Click OK to create the interaction and to close the editor.