About contact pairs in Abaqus/Explicit

Abaqus/Explicit provides two algorithms for modeling contact and interaction problems: the general contact algorithm and the contact pair algorithm. See About contact interactions for a comparison of the two algorithms. This section describes how to define contact pairs with surfaces for contact simulations in Abaqus/Explicit.

Contact pairs in Abaqus/Explicit:

  • are part of the history definition of the model and can be created, modified, and removed from step to step (unlike Abaqus/Standard, where contact pairs are model data);

  • use sophisticated tracking algorithms to ensure that proper contact conditions are enforced efficiently;

  • can be used simultaneously with the general contact algorithm (i.e., some interactions can be modeled with contact pairs, while others are modeled with the general contact algorithm);

  • can be formed using a pair of rigid or deformable surfaces or a single deformable surface;

  • do not have to use surfaces with matching meshes;

  • cannot be formed with one two-dimensional surface and one three-dimensional surface; and

  • cannot be used for self-contact where the surface is composed of both first-order elements and second-order elements.

The following topics are discussed:

Related Topics
About contact interactions
In Other Guides
Element-based surface definition
Node-based surface definition
Analytical rigid surface definition
*CONTACT CONTROLS
*CONTACT PAIR
*SURFACE
Defining surface-to-surface contact
Defining self-contact

ProductsAbaqus/ExplicitAbaqus/CAE