Finite-sliding contact between a deformable body and a rigid surface

The Abaqus/Standard models consist of a solid or beam element that is resting on a rigid surface, or in the case of three-dimensional solid elements, a distance of one unit away from the rigid surface. In the latter case a displacement is applied in the first step to bring the body in contact with the rigid surface. Frictionless contact is assumed. With contact established, a downward pressure is applied on the deformable elements, resulting in contact pressures and stresses in the solid elements. Two pressure load steps are performed. The first step is a geometrically linear analysis, whereas the second step invokes geometric nonlinearity, which takes the increased contact area into account. The contact pressure (CPRESS) should balance the applied pressure load in both steps.

For axisymmetric elements with twist the test consists of five steps. Initially the solid element interferes with the rigid surface. This overclosure is removed in the first step, which is a nonlinear step. The next three steps are linear perturbation steps, wherein relative sliding and/or twisting is performed between the two contact surfaces. The following nonlinear step combines relative sliding and twisting between the two surfaces.

In the last three steps three linear perturbation analyses are conducted: a direct-solution steady-state dynamic analysis of the two bodies in contact subjected to a harmonic distributed loading, a natural frequency extraction analysis, and a subspace-based steady-state dynamic analysis.

For cylindrical membrane elements the models consist of two concentric cylinders. The deformable cylinder, which is meshed with cylindrical membrane elements, has a radius of one unit. The rigid cylinder, modeled using an analytical rigid surface, has a radius of 1.2 units. The tests consist of three steps. Initially the cylindrical membrane elements interfere with the rigid surface. This overclosure is removed in the first step, which is a linear step. The value of friction is changed in the second nonlinear step. In the final step relative sliding is performed between the two contact surfaces.

The Abaqus/Explicit model consists of a single beam element contacting an analytically rigid surface. The analysis has two steps. In the first step the contact is established, with a frictionless contact pair definition, using node-based surfaces on the deformable beam. In the next step the contact pair is redefined with friction, and the beam is made to slide over the analytically rigid surface. Consistent contact stresses are obtained for beam and pipe elements.