Assigning Contact Properties for Contact Pairs in Abaqus/Explicit

Contact properties:

  • define the mechanical and thermal surface interaction models that govern the behavior of surfaces when they are in contact; and

  • are assigned to individual contact pairs.

This page discusses:

See Also
About Mechanical Contact Properties
Contact Pressure-Overclosure Relationships
Contact Damping
Frictional Behavior
User-Defined Interfacial Constitutive Behavior
Breakable Bonds
In Other Guides
*CONTACT PAIR
*SURFACE INTERACTION

ProductsAbaqus/Explicit

Assigning a Contact Property Definition to a Contact Pair

If nondefault contact properties are desired, you can refer to a contact property definition that governs the interaction of the two surfaces.

Multiple contact pairs can refer to the same contact property definition.

Input File Usage

Use both of the following options:

CONTACT PAIR, INTERACTION=interaction_property_name
surface_1, surface_2
SURFACE INTERACTION, NAME=interaction_property_name

Example

Figure 1 shows the mesh used in this example. For purposes of this example, a balanced main-secondary contact pair is used. The property definition for the contact pair (GRATING) uses a friction model where μ =0.4.

Figure 1. Surface interaction with friction. 

HEADING
…
SURFACE, NAME=ASURF
ESETA,
SURFACE, NAME=BSURF
ESETB,
…
STEP
Step1
DYNAMIC, EXPLICIT
…
CONTACT PAIR, INTERACTION=GRATING
ASURF, BSURF
SURFACE INTERACTION, NAME=GRATING
FRICTION
0.4

Changing Contact Properties

Contact property models are defined as model or history data for a contact pair analysis. You can modify the contact properties from step to step; however, the old contact pair should be deleted and redefined using the new interaction.

Example

For example, the following input could be used to change the friction coefficient used for contact between ASURF and BSURF in the second step of the analysis started in the previous example:

STEP
Step2
DYNAMIC, EXPLICIT
…
CONTACT PAIR, INTERACTION=GRATING,OP=DELETE
ASURF, BSURF
SURFACE INTERACTION, NAME=GRATING_NEW
FRICTION
0.5
CONTACT PAIR, INTERACTION=GRATING_NEW
ASURF, BSURF