Contact stabilization
Elements tested
C3D8 CPE4
Features tested
Contact stabilization
Problem description
Contact stabilization can be used to control rigid body motions that may exist in a model before contact is fully developed. The option adds viscous damping in both the normal and tangential directions. By default, the damping is calculated automatically, but it is possible to modify the damping coefficient, the variation of the damping coefficient over the step, the range over which the damping works, and the ratio between normal and tangential damping. The controls specified with this option remain in effect until they are either changed by another contact controls procedure or reset to their default values. Contact stabilization can be defined for a specific contact pair or for the entire model. Further description of the stabilization controls can be found in Adjusting Contact Controls in Abaqus/Standard. In these tests various combinations of stabilization controls are tested in multistep analyses with multiple contact pairs.
The first group of analyses consists of six pairs of blocks that are pushed together in Step 1, subjected to tangential sliding in Step 2, and pulled apart in Step 3. The blocks are elastic, and the motion of the blocks is controlled with boundary conditions. Contact stabilization parameters are specified for the whole model and are overridden by different parameters for several individual contact pairs. The stabilization parameters vary from step to step. A restart file is written, and some restarts are made to test the restart functionality.
The second group of analyses consists of three blocks that are pushed together in Step 1, subjected to tangential sliding in Step 2, and pulled apart in Step 3. The blocks are elastic; and the top and bottom blocks are controlled with boundary conditions, whereas the middle block is completely free and held in place by contact stabilization. Different contact stabilization parameters are used for each contact pair. In addition, frictional properties are prescribed for one contact pair. This group contains two-dimensional and three-dimensional static analyses as well as a dynamic analysis.
Results and discussion
The results show contact damping pressures CDPRESS as well as contact damping shear stresses CDSHEAR1 and CDSHEAR2 that are in agreement with expectations. In addition, in the second group of problems the rigid body motions of the middle block are controlled and no solver messages are observed.
Input files
- controlsstab_3d.inp
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Static analysis with six pairs of blocks and different control parameters.
- controlsstab_restart1.inp
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Restart from the results of the analysis with six pairs of blocks.
- controlsstab_restart2.inp
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Restart from the results of the first restart analysis.
- controlsstab_free_2d.inp
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Static analysis with two fixed and one free block in two dimensions.
- controlsstab_free_3d.inp
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Static analysis with two fixed and one free block in three dimensions.
- controlsstab_dyn.inp
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Dynamic analysis with two fixed and one free block in three dimensions.