Hi, is MSC.Patran able to set-up surface to surface contact without using cgap?. I'm using Patran 2008r2 and i can see in the Load/BCs menu the voice create-->contact but i can't see how to use it. I have to simulate the contact between 2 components meshed with hexa elements
Thanks in advance

Sorry, i forgot to ask you which solver i should use to simulate the surface to surface contact, I have:
- msc nastran which has licenses to run 106 but not 400 and probably not even 600 and 700
- nx nastran
- msc marc

Patran 2008 is really old, not sure if you can do Surface to Surface contact in this old Patran.

As for the solvers, you can easily do Surface to Surface contact in

-MSC Nastran SOL 400, 600 and 700
-Marc

I wouldn't bother doing Surface to Surface contact in SOL 106 or in NX Nastran since you might be 100 years old by the time you align all your nodes to use the CGAP.

Your request sounds a lot like this video demo. The same procedure works for 2D elements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfbSnxpimSs

watching the video seems like i can do S2S contact even with sol 101, can i do the same thing with sol 106? without using CGAP i mean...

MD nastran sol 101 does linear contact

The video shows contact between two solids (Solid-to-Solid). Shell surface to surface contact is used between 2D finite elements (Source: NAS 133 - Training Course Notes from MSC Software), so we should all get the terminology straight before moving forward . Since you are using 3D hexa elements, you are performing a Solid-to-solid contact.

Save yourself the trouble and time, use SOL 400. Setting up CGAPs is a nightmare and unnecessary given the latest technologies out there. I have included a training workshop that I think you may find useful.

Lastly, upgrade your Patran version to the latest release.

watching the video seems like i can do S2S contact even with sol 101, can i do the same thing with sol 106? Yes, you most likely can use SOL 106 with the CGAPS, but you will spend an eternity setting up the model.

without using CGAP i mean... You have to use the cgaps in SOL 106.

• http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=b923bfcc-5d81-4e19-b320-41