Specifying interference fit options

When you are defining surface-to-surface contact for Abaqus/Standard, you can specify interference fit options that help Abaqus/Standard resolve excessive overclosure between surfaces in the initial configuration of a model. For more information, see Modeling contact interference fits in Abaqus/Standard.

Context:

To open the Interference Fit Options dialog box, click Interference Fit in the Abaqus/Standard interaction editor (see Defining surface-to-surface contact in an Abaqus/Standard analysis” above for details).

  1. In the Interference Fit Options dialog box, select Gradually remove slave node overclosure during the step to prescribe allowable intereferences.

  2. Select one of the following options:

    • Select Automatic shrink fit (first general analysis step only) if you want Abaqus/Standard to assign a different allowable interference to each slave node that is equal to that node's initial penetration. If you select this option, skip to Step 6.

    • Select Uniform allowable interference to specify a single allowable interference that will be applied to every slave node.

  3. Click the arrow to the right of the Amplitude field to select the name of an amplitude curve that defines the magnitude of the prescribed interference during the step. Alternatively, you can select (Ramp) to apply the prescribed interference immediately at the beginning of the step and ramp it down to zero linearly over the step.

    If necessary, you can click to define a new amplitude curve. For more information, see Selecting an amplitude type to define.

  4. In the Magnitude at start of step field, enter the magnitude of the allowable interference at the start of the step.

  5. If desired, select the Interference Direction option Along direction to specify a shift direction vector. The relative shift is applied to the slave nodes before Abaqus/Standard determines the contact conditions. If you select this option, enter the following:

    • In the X field, enter the X-direction cosine of the shift direction vector.

    • In the Y field, enter the Y-direction cosine of the shift direction vector.

    • In the Z field, enter the Z-direction cosine of the shift direction vector.

  6. Click OK to save the interference fit options that you have specified and to return to the Edit Interaction dialog box.