contact force in abaqus/explicit

[steven23]

hi,

I am using ABAQUS/Explicit for a structural impact problem.
I would like to plot the contact force as a function in time.
I already tried to specify contact force in the history output as a set(=contact surface. However, this resulted in an error message saying contact force in history output only is available in ABAQUS/Standard.

Could you please help me in finding a way to plot the contact force?

 

[DickButkus]

In ABAQUS/Viewer you can sum variables together. You can create an xy plot for all the nodes in a set automatically, then in /Viewer simply use the xy calculator to sum all the curves together. The resulting curve should be your contact force.

The CFN variable is not available in /Explicit due to it's unique way of handling contact.

Best regards,
KF9RI

 

[steven23]

thanx a lot,

Actually i already found a way that gives me the contact force directly.

This invloves typing the CFN and CPSET=name command (under history output,contact output) in the inp file.
After each contact pair definition in the inp file you have to add: CPSET=name.

To plot the force in time simply use plot history output where you will now find CFN 1 to 3 for each contact pair.