Defining Surface-Based Contact or Bonded Contact by Selecting Surfaces

You can select individual surface pairs manually and configure them for contact.

For structural, buckling, and frequency simulations, you can configure the surface pairs for bonded contact. For thermal simulations, you can configure the surface pairs for thermal contact.

See Also
About Contact
About Surface-Based Contact and Bonded Contact
About Proximity and Orientation Requirements
  1. From the Connections section of the action bar, click the appropriate option:

    • For structural, buckling, or frequency simulations, click Bonded Contact .
    • For thermal simulations, click Surface-based Contact .

  2. Optional: Enter a descriptive Name.
  3. Select a geometry support as the first surface, Support 1.
    Note: The distinction between the first and second surfaces in a bonded connection is mostly arbitrary.
  4. To change the support selection focus, click Support 2.
  5. Select a geometry support on a different component to act as the second surface.

    Tip: When the contacting surfaces are difficult to discern, you can render all parts translucent except for parts associated with the contacting surfaces.
    • Click green to render all parts translucent except for contacting parts associated withSupport 1.
    • Click magenta to render all parts translucent except for contacting parts associated with Support 2.

  6. For thermal simulations, enter a value for the Conductance, which is a measure of the conductive heat transfer between the contacting surfaces.

    A higher conductance value implies an easier transfer of heat across the surfaces, while a conductance of zero prevents heat from transferring across the surfaces.

  7. Click OK.