Automatic contact generation
Automatic contact generation
(OP)
Hi,
I'm working with Abaqus in a model with many different parts, so there are many contact interactions. But manually defining all the master-slave pairs is tedious, and inefficient, so I'm looking for a faster (and easier) way. Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks
I'm working with Abaqus in a model with many different parts, so there are many contact interactions. But manually defining all the master-slave pairs is tedious, and inefficient, so I'm looking for a faster (and easier) way. Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks





RE: Automatic contact generation
If your model is 3D in ABAQUS/Explicit, you could look at using general contact. If not, I think you will be stuck with defining contact pairs.
Regards
Martin
RE: Automatic contact generation
thanks for your info.
And yes, my model is 3D. But although I tried, I can't make my model works. I'm using CAE to enter the data, and when defining contacts, I use "general contact" as you explained (option says "Explicit only"). But when I try to submit it, a message like "only for Abaqus/Explicit" appears. But that's what I'm doing!!, I suppose. Reading the User's Manual or the CAe Manual wasn't helpful either.
I think that is a simple problem, but I can't get it. Any help will be really appreciated.
Thanks.
RE: Automatic contact generation
corus
RE: Automatic contact generation
Thanks again.
RE: Automatic contact generation
Check the length of your time step - you can do quasi-static analysis with Explicit with quite short time steps. For metal forming models, I've used time steps of between 0.01-0.1 sec depending on the job.
You should also look up mass scaling in the docs. Used carefully, it will help to speed up the computation time. The tradeoff with mass scaling is knowing how much is acceptable - too much mass scaling and your model is meaningless.
If you're new to ABAQUS/Explicit, I'd strongly reccomend taking the time to leaf through the appropriate manual sections aswell.
Good luck!
Martin