Activate Separating Contact

Setup non-linear separating contact.

For a video tutorial on modeling separating contact, click here.

For more information about separating contact, including validation benchmarks, click here.

  1. Add a non-linear separating contact analysis branch.
    1. In the Project Tree, click the Analysis Workbench.
    2. On the Analysis Workbench, click Add.
    3. Select Structural > Non-linear.
      Figure 1.


    4. In the Structural analysis popup, select the Separating contact check box.
  2. In the new Analysis branch, next to the name of the analysis, click (Action Menu) > Contact conditions.
    Figure 2.


  3. Identify which contact conditions are allowed to separate.
    1. In the modeling window, select parts of the model.
      Contact conditions for selected parts are listed in the Edit contact conditions dialog.
    2. Select the (Action menu) next to the contact condition and click Edit.
      Figure 3.


    3. Select the Separating contact condition type.
    4. Specify a friction coefficient.
      A value of 0.0 indicates sliding and 1.0 indicates bonded. Typical values are between 0.1 and 0.2.
    5. Optional: You can select the Apply to all check box to apply the same edits to other existing analyses of the same type.