Increase number of contact element in a ball joint

[NaikD]

Hi,

I am new to ANSYS. In my model I have four ball joints. However, due to the modeling error in CATIA, one of the ball joint resulted in an interference fit and remaining three have 0.06" gap in ball and socket. Ideally all four ball joints should have been the same.

When I set the frictional contact between the ball and socket, the ball joint with interference fit had 5 contact elements where as the other three only 1 contact element each when I verified the contacts using contact tool.

I tried to increase the number of contact elements in the ball joints by increasing the pinball radius as well as the increasing the mesh density but the number of contact elements do not change when I verify that using the contact tool. The frictional contacts are set to "Adjust to touch".

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help !

- Dipak

 

[flash3780]

Fixing the modeling error sounds as though it's the most straightforward solution to your problem. I'd start there.

 

[NaikD]

Flash3780,

Sorry for the delay in replying to you. I fixed the CATIA model and started getting good results. For frictional contacts, we need to experiement a little as too much penetration or gap does not work. Line to line contact works and then if needed interference levels can be increased to a point where Newton-Raphson residuals cause convergence problems.

Thanks again for your help !!

- Dipak

 

[NaikD]

J script for exporting Von Mises Stress
Hi,

I know a code (J script) can be written to export the maximum and minimum values of Von-Mises stress results for all the components in a FEM model, to a text file that can be imported into excel.
Can anyone let me know if this has already been done?

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Dipak