Contact Pair: Define Tab

In the Define tab, select the slave surface, master surface, and surface interaction for the *CONTACT PAIR card. You can also review the selected surfaces or create new ones.

The Define tab contains the following options:
Table 1.
Option Description
Auto-generated surface from component

Select this option for HyperMesh to automatically generate *SURFACE cards from a selected component.

When this option is selected, the Surface field becomes a Component field, and you can select a component from the adjacent drop-down list. Click Slave>> or Master>> to add them to the table of included surfaces as slave or master, respectively.

Surface The Surface field contains a list of the existing surfaces. Select a slave surface from the list or use the … button to open the Entity Browser to select a surface.

Click Slave>> to add the surface as a slave to the table of selected surfaces. Click Master>> to add the surface as a master. Click Remove>> to remove any selected surface from the table. You can add multiple sets of surfaces to the table.

Click New to create a new surface. Once you have specified the surface properties, the surface appears in the drop-down list, where you can select it and add it to the table.

The Review button highlights the selected slave surface in red and displays it through solid mesh in performance graphics in the HyperMesh window. If the surface is defined with sets, the underlying elements are highlighted. Right-click on Review to clear the review selections.

Interaction The Interaction field contains a list of the existing surface interaction properties. You can select a surface interaction from the list. You can also use the (…) button to open the Entity browser to select a surface.

The New button opens the Create New Surface Interaction dialog for creating a new surface interaction. When the new surface interaction has been defined, the Contact Pair dialog reflects the newly-created surface interaction as the interaction of the contact pair.

Note: The surface interaction is optional in explicit template. The Define tab will show a Surface interaction check box if the explicit template is loaded. This option should be checked first if a surface interaction property is intended for the contact pair card.

If you create multiple pairs of contacts, they will appear on the Interface tab in separate entries using the same name.