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Contact Friction

4.16. Contact Friction

Contact friction (TB,FRIC) is a material property used with current-technology contact elements. It
can be specified either through the coefficient of friction (MU) for isotropic or orthotropic friction
models or as user defined friction properties.

4.16.1. Isotropic Friction

Isotropic friction is applicable to 2-D and 3-D contact and is available for all contact elements. Use the
TB,FRIC command with TBOPT = ISO to define isotropic friction, and specify the coefficient of friction
MU on the TBDATA command. This is the recommended method for defining isotropic friction.

To define a coefficient of friction that is dependent on temperature, time, normal pressure, sliding
distance, or sliding relative velocity, use the TBFIELD command. Suitable combinations of up to two
fields can be used to define dependency, for example, temperature and sliding distance as shown
below:
TB,FRIC,1,,,ISO ! Activate isotropic friction model
TBFIELD,TEMP,100.0 ! Define first value of temperature
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.1 ! Define first value of sliding distance
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.5 ! Define second value of sliding distance
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction
TBFIELD,TEMP,200.0 ! Define second value of temperature
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.2 ! Define first value of sliding distance
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.7 ! Define second value of sliding distance
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction

See Understanding Field Variables

for more information on the interpolation scheme used for field-
dependent material properties defined using TBFIELD.

To define a coefficient of friction that is dependent on temperature only, use the TBTEMP command
as shown below:
TB,FRIC,1,2,,ISO ! Activate isotropic friction model
TBTEMP,100.0 ! Define first temperature
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction at temp 100.0
TBTEMP,200.0 ! Define second temperature
TBDATA,1,MU ! Define coefficient of friction at temp 200.0

Alternatively, you can use MU on the MP command to specify the isotropic friction. Use the MPTEMP
command to define MU as a function of temperature. See Linear Material Properties
for details.

Note that if the coefficient of friction is defined as a function of temperature, the program always uses
the contact surface temperature as the primary variable (not the average temperature from the
contact and target surfaces).

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4.16.2. Orthotropic Friction

The orthotropic friction model uses two different coefficients of friction in two principal directions (see
Frictional Modelin the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference
for details). It is applicable only to 3-D
contact and is available for current-technology contact elements.

Issue the TB,FRIC command with TBOPT = ORTHO or EORTHO to define orthotropic friction, and
specify the coefficients of friction, MU1 and MU2, on the TBDATA command.

To define a coefficient of friction that is dependent on temperature, time, normal pressure, sliding
distance, or sliding relative velocity, use the TBFIELD command. Suitable combinations of up to two
fields can be used to define dependency, for example, sliding relative velocity and normal pressure as
shown below:
TB,FRIC,1,,,ORTHO ! Activate orthotropic friction model
TBFIELD,SLRV,10.0 ! Define first value of sliding relative velocity
TBFIELD,NPRE,200.0 ! Define first value of normal pressure
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction
TBFIELD,NPRE,250.0 ! Define second value of normal pressure
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction
TBFIELD,SLRV,20.0 ! Define second value of sliding relative velocity
TBFIELD,NPRE,150.0 ! Define first value of normal pressure
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction
TBFIELD,NPRE,300.0 ! Define second value of normal pressure
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction

See Understanding Field Variables

for more information on the interpolation scheme used for field-
dependent material properties defined using TBFIELD.

The two options TBOPT = ORTHO and EORTHO differ only when the frictional coefficients are defined
as a function of sliding distance or sliding velocity. The difference occurs in the way the coefficients
are interpolated. For TBOPT = ORTHO, the friction coefficient in each direction is a function of sliding
distance or velocity in that direction only. For TBOPT = EORTHO, the friction coefficient in each
direction depends upon the magnitude of total sliding or total velocity, thus causing sliding in one
direction to affect the friction coefficients in both directions.

To define a coefficient of friction that is dependent on temperature only, use the TBTEMP command
as shown below:
TB,FRIC,1,2,,ORTHO ! Activate orthotropic friction model
TBTEMP,100.0 ! Define first temperature
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction at temp 100.0
TBTEMP,200.0 ! Define second temperature
TBDATA,1,MU1,MU2 ! Define coefficients of friction at temp 200.0

Note that if the coefficient of friction is defined as a function of temperature, the program always uses
the contact surface temperature as the primary variable (not the average temperature from the
contact and target surfaces).

4.16.3. Redefining Friction Between Load Steps

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If the friction behavior changes between initial loading and secondary loading (for example, during
cyclic loading of seabed pipelines), you can reissue the TB,FRIC command between load steps to
define new values for the coefficient of friction. This is true for both temperature-dependent friction
(isotropic or orthotropic) defined via the TBTEMP command and field-dependent friction (isotropic or
orthotropic) defined via the TBFIELD command. The following example shows the latter case:
TB,FRIC,1,,,ORTHO !Activate orthotropic friction model
TBFIELD,SLDI,0. !Define initial curve for coefficient of friction
TBDATA,1,0.0,0.0
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.25
TBDATA,1,0.0,1.25
TBFIELD,SLDI,0.5
TBDATA,1,0.0,1.0
TBFIELD,SLDI,20.
TBDATA,1,0.0,1.1

/SOLUTION
!* LOAD STEP 1
...
TIME,1
SOLVE

TB,FRIC,1,,,ORTHO !Activate orthotropic friction model

TBFIELD,SLDI,0. !Define secondary curve for coefficient of friction
TBDATA,1,0.0,20.0
TBFIELD,SLDI,1.1
TBFIELD,SLDI,20.25
TBDATA,1,0.0,0.0
TBFIELD,SLDI,20.5
TBDATA,1,0.0,0.8
TBFIELD,SLDI,21
TBDATA,1,0.0,0.7
TBFIELD,SLDI,35
TBDATA,1,0.0,0.75

!* LOAD STEP 2
...
TIME,2
SOLVE

4.16.4. User-Defined Friction

As an alternative to the program-supplied friction models, you can define your own friction model with
the user programmable friction subroutine, USERFRIC. The frictional stresses can be defined as a
function of variables such as slip increments, sliding rate, temperature, and other arguments passed
into the subroutine. You can specify a number of properties or constants associated with your friction
model, and you can introduce extra solution-dependent state variables that can be updated and used
within the subroutine. User-defined friction is applicable to 2-D and 3-D contact elements.

To specify user-defined friction, use the TB,FRIC command with TBOPT = USER and specify the
friction properties on the TBDATA command, as shown below. Also, use the USERFRIC subroutine to
program the friction model.

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TB,FRIC,1,,2,USER ! Activate user defined friction model; NPTS = 2

TBDATA,1,PROP1,PROP2 ! Define friction properties

Field variables specified with the TBFIELD command are not available for TB,FRIC,,,,USER.

For detailed information on using the USERFRIC subroutine, see Writing Your Own Friction Law
(USERFRIC in the) Contact Technology Guide
.

Release 17.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved.

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