Small-sliding interaction between bodies

In Abaqus/Standard a capability is included to model small-sliding contact of two bodies with respect to each other. With this formulation the contacting surfaces can undergo only relatively small sliding relative to each other, but arbitrary rotation of the bodies is permitted. Small-sliding contact is computationally less expensive than finite-sliding contact.

This page discusses:

See Also
Finite-sliding interaction between deformable bodies
In Other Guides
Contact Formulations in Abaqus/Standard

ProductsAbaqus/Standard

The small-sliding capability can be used to model the interaction between two deformable bodies or between a deformable body and a rigid body in two and three dimensions. With this approach one surface definition provides the “main” surface and the other surface definition provides the “secondary” surface. A kinematic constraint that the secondary surface nodes do not penetrate the main surface is then enforced. The contacting surfaces need not have matching meshes; however, the best accuracy is obtained when the meshes are initially matching. For initially nonmatching meshes, accuracy can be improved by judiciously specifying initial adjustments to ensure that all secondary nodes that should initially be in contact are located on the main surface.

The small-sliding contact capability is implemented by means of four internal contact elements designed to handle the following kinematic constraints:

  1. two-dimensional contact between a secondary node and a deformable main surface,

  2. two-dimensional contact between a secondary node and a rigid main surface,

  3. three-dimensional contact between a secondary node and a deformable main surface, and

  4. three-dimensional contact between a secondary node and a rigid main surface.

These elements are not accessible to the user, and Abaqus will automatically cover a secondary surface with the appropriate element type, based on the nature of the corresponding main surface.