*CONTACT DAMPING

Define viscous damping between contacting surfaces.

This option is used to define viscous damping between two interacting surfaces. It must be used in conjunction with the SURFACE INTERACTION, the GAP, or the INTERFACE option. In Abaqus/Standard this option is primarily used to damp relative motions of the surfaces during approach or separation. In Abaqus/Explicit this option is used to damp oscillations when using penalty or softened contact. This option is not applicable if user subroutine VUINTER or VUINTERACTION is specified for the surface interaction.

Related Topics
In Other Guides
About mechanical contact properties
Contact damping

ProductsAbaqus/StandardAbaqus/ExplicitAbaqus/CAE

TypeModel data in Abaqus/Standard; Model or history data in Abaqus/Explicit

LevelPartPart instanceAssemblyModel in Abaqus/Standard; Model or Step in Abaqus/Explicit

Abaqus/CAEInteraction module

Required parameters

DEFINITION

Use this parameter to choose the dimensionality of the damping coefficient that is specified on the data line. The only option that is available in an Abaqus/Standard analysis is DEFINITION=DAMPING COEFFICIENT.

Set DEFINITION=CRITICAL DAMPING FRACTION to use a unitless damping coefficient, B. The damping forces are calculated with fv⁢d=B⁢4⁢m⁢kc⁢vr⁢e⁢le⁢l, where m is the nodal mass, kc is the nodal contact stiffness (in units of F⁢L-1), and vr⁢e⁢le⁢l is the rate of relative elastic slip between the surfaces. A default value of B=0.03 is used for kinematic contact with softened behavior and penalty contact.

Set DEFINITION=DAMPING COEFFICIENT to specify damping in terms of a damping coefficient, C, with units of pressure per relative velocity such that the damping forces will be calculated with fv⁢d=C⁢A⁢vr⁢e⁢le⁢l, where A is the nodal area and vr⁢e⁢le⁢l is the rate of relative elastic slip between the surfaces. If a contact area is not defined, such as may occur for node-based surfaces or for GAP- or ITT-type contact elements, coefficient units are force per relative velocity. For contact with three-dimensional beams or trusses, coefficient units are force per unit length per unit velocity.

Optional parameters

TANGENT FRACTION

Set this parameter equal to the tangential damping coefficient divided by the normal damping coefficient. This parameter affects only the tangential damping; the normal direction damping coefficient is defined on the data line below. Set this parameter equal to zero if no tangential damping is desired. The default is 0.0 in Abaqus/Standard and 1.0 in Abaqus/Explicit.

Data line to define viscous damping in the normal direction between the contacting surfaces

First (and only) line

  1. Damping coefficient.

  2. The remaining data items are used only in Abaqus/Standard analyses. For Abaqus/Explicit damping is applied only when the surfaces are in contact, whereas for Abaqus/Standard damping is applied independent of the open/close state.

  3. Clearance at which the damping coefficient is zero, c0.

  4. Fraction of the clearance interval between zero clearance and c0 over which the damping coefficient is constant, η    (0≤η≤1). The default is η=0.0.