PCOMP shell contact question

[AOEuserFEA]

Good Afternoon All,

I'm working on a contact problem in a composite shell model. The attached image shows a schematic of the problem. Essentially, a beam is inserted into a socket which is integral to a skin and bulkhead. The beam should never contact the skin or bulkhead because the socket is between them. Currently the geometry I have has all the surfaces (socket, beam, bulkhead, and skin) intersecting at the point where the beam enters the socket (marked in red). I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the best way to model this using NEi Nastran and a general contact condition with the beam in the socket and everything else welded. Do I need to scale down the beam end so that the geometry is not actually in contact initially and use the contact parameters to define or is there some way to make it work with the current geometry?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Respectfully,
Andrew

 

[AOEuserFEA]

Also, I forgot to mention that I would like to use linear contact. I think it would be appropriate here because the beam and socket ideally are perfectly matched.