Introduction

Lecture 1
 L1.2

Overview

• General Considerations
• Surface-based Contact
• Contact Examples
• Ingredients of a Contact Model

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

General Considerations
 L1.4

General Considerations

• What is contact?
• Physically, contact stress is transmitted
between two solid bodies when they touch.
• In some cases only normal stress is
transmitted.
• If friction is present, a limited amount of
shear stress can also be transmitted.
• Numerically, contact is a severely
discontinuous form of nonlinearity.
• Either a constraint is applied or it is
ignored.
• The general objective of a numerical
analysis is to determine contacting
areas and stress transmitted.

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.5

General Considerations

• Contact problems can generally be divided into two broad classes:

‘Continuum’ vs. ‘Structural’ Contact
• Continuum contact (bulky components)
• Typically, many nodes in contact
at one time
• Contact causes local deformation
and shear, but it causes little bending

• Structural contact (slender components)

• Typically, few nodes in contact at
one time
• Contact causes bending
• Often more challenging

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

Surface-based Contact
 L1.7

Surface-based Contact

• Abaqus/Standard offers both surface-based and element-based

approaches to modeling contact

Surface-based contact: Contact elements:

Expansion of a stent in an artery Reinforced medical tubing

• Surface-based contact offers greater flexibility and ease-of-use and will

therefore be the focus of this course.
• Element-based contact is discussed in Appendix 2.

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.8

Surface-based Contact

• Abaqus/Standard provides two

approaches for modeling surface-based
contact:
• General contact allows you to define contact
between many or all regions of a model with a
single interaction.
• The surfaces that can interact with one
another comprise the contact domain
and can span many disconnected
One contact domain in general contact
regions of a model.
• Contact pairs describe contact between two
surfaces.
• Requires more careful definition of
contact.
• Every possible contact pair
interaction must be defined.
• Has many restrictions on the types of
surfaces involved. Multiple contact pairs required

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.9

Surface-based Contact

• The general contact algorithm

• The contact domain spans
multiple bodies (both rigid and
deformable)
• Default domain is defined
automatically via an
all-inclusive
element-based surface
• The method is geared toward
models with multiple
components and complex
topology
• Greater ease in defining
contact model

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.10

Surface-based Contact

• The contact pair algorithm

• Requires user-specified pairing of individual surfaces
• Often results in more efficient analyses since contact surfaces are
limited in scope

Slave surfaces
for contact pair
analysis

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.11

Surface-based Contact

• The choice between general contact and contact pairs is largely a

trade-off between ease of defining contact and analysis performance
• Robustness and accuracy of both methods are similar
• In some cases, the contact pair approach is required in order to access
specific features not currently available with general contact.
• These include:
• Analytical rigid surfaces
• Node-based surfaces or surfaces on 3D beams
• Small sliding
• Rough friction
• Lagrange friction
• See the Abaqus Analysis User’s Manual for a complete list

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.12

Surface-based Contact

• The two contact algorithms, however, can be used together in the same
analysis.
• The general contact algorithm automatically avoids processing
interactions that are treated by the contact pair algorithm.

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

Contact Examples
 L1.14

Contact Examples

• Types of contact
• Various factors influence a contact analysis, including:
• Deformable or rigid surfaces
• Slender or bulky components
• Degree of confinement and compressibility of components
• Two-surface contact or self contact
• Finite-sliding or small-sliding contact formulation
• Interaction properties (friction, thermal, etc.)
• The above factors include physical and numerical aspects
• The user is responsible for defining the physical aspects of a model
• The user and Abaqus control various numerical aspects
• Examples representing different “classes” of contact problems follow

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.15

Contact Examples

• Contact between linear elastic bodies with small relative motion

• “Hertz” contact
• Common design problem involving:
• Small displacements
• Contact over a
distributed surface area
• Typical examples:
• Bearing design
• Hard gaskets
• Interference fits
• Fretting (surface wear) is
often a concern, requiring This example is taken from “Coolant manifold
accurate resolution of contact cover gasketed joint,” Section 5.1.4 in the
stresses and stick/slip zones Abaqus Example Problems Manual.

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.16

Contact Examples

• Deformable to rigid body

contact
• Finite sliding between
the surfaces (large
displacements).
• Finite strain of the
deforming components.
• Typical examples:
• Rubber seals
• Tire on road
• Pipeline on seabed
Example: metal forming simulation
• Forming simulations
(rigid die/mold, This example is taken from “Superplastic
deformable component). forming of a rectangular box,” Section 1.3.2
in the Abaqus Example Problems Manual.

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.17

Contact Examples

• Finite-sliding contact between

deformable bodies
• Most general category of
contact
• Example: twisting blocks
• Press together and
relative rotation of 90º

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

 L1.18

Contact Examples

• Self-contact of a single body

• Type of finite-sliding, deformable- SURF1
(rigid)
to-deformable contact
• Contact of a single body with SURF2
itself—often involves severe
deformation
• Sometimes adds CPU
expense and numerical difficulty
• If the surface spans multiple
bodies, multi-body contact can
be modeled with “self contact”
Contour of minimum principal stress
• This is the basis for general
(or “automatic” ) contact Example: Compression of a rubber gasket
(taken from “Self-contact in rubber/foam
components: rubber gasket,” Example
Problem 1.1.18 in the Abaqus Example
Problems Manual).

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard

Ingredients of a Contact Model
 L1.20

Ingredients of a Contact Model

• Contact surfaces
• Surfaces over bodies that may experience contact
• Contact interactions
• Which surfaces interact with one another?
• Nondefault surface property assignments
• For example, contact thickness of a shell
• Nondefault contact property models
• Examples: pressure vs. overclosure relationship, friction coefficient,
contact conduction coefficient, etc.
• Nondefault contact formulation aspects
• For example, can a small-sliding formulation be used?
• Nondefault algorithmic contact controls
• Such as convergence tolerances associated with contact

Will discuss these aspects during the course of this seminar

Modeling Contact with Abaqus/Standard