Application description
Four contact formulations are available for general contact in Abaqus/Standard: surface-to-surface, edge-to-surface, edge-to-edge, and vertex-to-surface. For the edge-to-surface contact formulation involving line elements, such as beams and trusses, the default secondary or main role assignment for the line element is that the line element acts as the secondary unless the line element radius exceeds twice the typical facet dimension of the other surface. More accurate contact resolution occurs with a relatively large diameter line element acting as the main surface to a more-refined faceted surface.
The edge-to-surface contact formulation with a main role assignment for beam elements is illustrated with this simple example of bending a beam in contact with a cylindrical sleeve.
Geometry
A beam of radius 10 mm and length 150 mm passes through a cylindrical sleeve of radius 15 mm, length 20 mm, and thickness 1 mm. The beam and cylinder are coaxial (Figure 1). Both are made of steel with a Young's modulus of 200 GPa and a Poisson's ratio of 0.3. The contact between the beam and cylindrical sleeve is considered frictionless with a "hard" pressure-overclosure relationship. The general contact formulation with self-contact of an all-encompassing surface is used.
Boundary conditions and loading
One end of the beam is held fixed while the other end is subjected to a bending load of 20 N along the global Y-axis. The sleeve is held fixed rigidly.
