About Surface-Based Contact

Surface-based contact defines the interaction behavior between two discrete surface regions in the model.

A contact simulation using contact pairs or general contact is defined by specifying:

  • surface definitions for the bodies that could potentially be in contact;
  • the surfaces that interact with one another (the contact interactions);
  • any nondefault surface properties to be considered in the contact interactions;
  • the mechanical and thermal contact property models, such as the pressure-overclosure relationship, the friction coefficient, or the contact conduction coefficient;
  • any nondefault aspects of the contact formulation; and
  • any algorithmic contact controls for the analysis.
In many cases you do not need to explicitly specify many of the aspects listed above because the default settings are usually appropriate. In addition, you can specify the main and secondary surfaces manually or let the system choose the surfaces for you.