5.2.

1 Contact pressure definition 18/04/2023, 08:51

5.2.1 Contact pressure definition

Products: Abaqus/Standard  Abaqus/Explicit  

The contact modeling capabilities in Abaqus allow access to a library of “surface constitutive models.” Part
of this library in Abaqus/Standard is the definition of the contact pressure between two surfaces at a point,
, as a function of the “overclosure,” , of the surfaces (the interpenetration of the surfaces). Two models for
are provided as described below.

Hard contact

In this case

The contact constraint is enforced with a Lagrange multiplier representing the contact pressure in a mixed
formulation. The virtual work contribution is

and the linearized form of the contribution is

Softened contact defined with an exponential pressure-overclosure relationship

This model provides an exponential – relationship, as shown in Figure 5.2.1–1.

Figure 5.2.1–1 “Softened” pressure-overclosure relationship using an exponential law.

The user defines an initial contact distance, , and a typical pressure value, , which is the pressure value
at zero overclosure ( ). Then, we define

for ,

http://130.149.89.49:2080/v6.14/books/stm/ch05s02ath135.html Page 1 of 5
5.2.1 Contact pressure definition 18/04/2023, 08:51

for ,

and

for ,

for .

To avoid numerical difficulties at high penetration ( ), a linearized pressure-overclosure relation with

continuous slope is used.

Softened contact defined with a tabular pressure-overclosure relationship

The pressure-overclosure ( - ) relationship can be entered directly in tabular form as shown in Figure
5.2.1–2.

Figure 5.2.1–2 “Softened” pressure-overclosure relationship defined in tabular form.

Softened contact defined with a linear pressure-overclosure relationship

The linear pressure-overclosure relationship is similar to the tabular relationship except that the linear form
requires only a single value to be input to define the slope and the curve always passes through the origin.

Softened contact implementation

A mixed formulation is used because the exponential stiffness associated with softened contact tends to
slow down convergence or, due to the development of excessive contact stresses, may cause divergence. For
the mixed formulation the virtual work contribution is

where is the contact pressure, is the actual overclosure, and is the overclosure associated with the
contact pressure, . A local Newton loop is used to calculate for the current value of . The linearized
form of this contribution is

http://130.149.89.49:2080/v6.14/books/stm/ch05s02ath135.html Page 2 of 5
5.2.1 Contact pressure definition 18/04/2023, 08:51

where is evaluated for the overclosure . Since there is no term involving ,

there is a zero on the diagonal of the Jacobian. A zero on the diagonal is not desirable because it may lead to
equation solver problems if a rigid body mode is constrained only by contact elements. Hence, a small
reference stiffness is introduced by splitting the contact pressure as follows:

where is a Lagrange multiplier and is a small reference stiffness (see Figure 5.2.1–1):

Substituting for the pressure in Equation 5.2.1–1 and Equation 5.2.1–2, we obtain

and

Further,

Therefore, substituting for in Equation 5.2.1–4,

Thus, the corresponding system of equations in matrix form is

In the mixed formulation the difference between the actual and the calculated overclosure will go to
zero as part of the iterative solution process. The difference must be sufficiently small to obtain an accurate
solution. The admissible error in is set to for . For the admissible error
is interpolated linearly between and , where represents the tolerance level at ;
alternatively, the tolerances can be specified by the user as part of the solution controls.

Viscous damping option

In addition to the surface constitutive models described above, where the contact pressure is a function of
the surface overclosure, Abaqus/Standard allows for the definition of a “viscous” pressure that is

http://130.149.89.49:2080/v6.14/books/stm/ch05s02ath135.html Page 3 of 5
5.2.1 Contact pressure definition 18/04/2023, 08:51

proportional to the relative velocity, , at which the surfaces approach or separate from each other. This
option is intended for the regularization of snap-through problems involving contact where convergence
difficulties arise due to the sudden violation of contact constraints.

The damping pressure, , is given by

where is the damping coefficient. This coefficient is specified as a function of the overclosure, , as
follows:

where is the value of the damping coefficient at zero overclosure and is the fraction of the overclosure
interval over which the damping coefficient is equal to .

The virtual work contribution associated with the damping pressure is

The contribution to the stiffness matrix for the Newton solution is given by the linearized form of the virtual
work contribution:

where

In static analysis the velocity is defined as the displacement increment divided by the time increment.
Therefore, , and the stiffness contribution reduces to

The previous expression also applies to dynamics if the backward Euler time integration operator is used. In
the case of dynamics with the Hilber-Hughes-Taylor time integration operator, the stiffness contribution can
be written as

http://130.149.89.49:2080/v6.14/books/stm/ch05s02ath135.html Page 4 of 5
5.2.1 Contact pressure definition 18/04/2023, 08:51

where and are the Hilber-Hughes-Taylor time integration operator parameters. The viscous damping
option cannot be used in a Riks analysis since velocity is not defined.

Reference

“Contact pressure-overclosure relationships,” Section 37.1.2 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide

http://130.149.89.49:2080/v6.14/books/stm/ch05s02ath135.html Page 5 of 5