Defining Contact in ABAQUS/CAE

General procedure written by G. Mseis

Contact in Abaqus CAE can be defined in the interactions module for both 2D
and 3D structures. This tutorial will provide the steps necessary to define the interaction
appropriately.

First Step: Define the Contact Property
1. Proceed to the interactions module
2. Go to the interaction menu and then create a property in the property submenu
3. In the property option, choose contact as the interaction type
4. Now click on Mechanical menu and add a tangential behavior
5. The tangential behavior includes a number of friction formulations.
6. Use the Lagrange formulation and enter the required coefficient of friction.

Second Step: Once the contact is the defined it is necessary now to define the surfaces
that will be subject to this interaction.
1. Under the interaction menu go to create and choose the surface to surface contact
option.
2. Define the Master Surface and the Slave Surface for the contacting bodies.
3. A Master Surfaces nodes can penetrate the Slave Surface, on the other hand the
Slave Surfaces nodes cannot penetrate the Master Surface.
4. You are now given the option of either finite sliding or small sliding. Finite
sliding allows for arbitrary separation, sliding and rotation of the surfaces.
However, small sliding limits the interaction of a slave node to that of a small part
of the master surface. Using small sliding requires NLGEOM to be used. Small
sliding is the only option for general 3D models. For more information as to what
formulation to use refer to the user manual.