Smoothing contact surfaces in Abaqus/Standard

With the finite element method, curved geometric surfaces are naturally approximated as a faceted group of connected element faces. This section discusses methods to improve faceted surface representations for purposes of contact computations based on knowledge of idealized initial surface geometry. Other types of surface smoothing are discussed in Smoothing master surfaces for the finite-sliding, node-to-surface formulation and Using the small-sliding tracking approach.

The use of a faceted surface geometry rather than the true surface geometry can significantly contribute to contact stress inaccuracy in contact interactions, especially when the magnitude of the differences between the faceted and true surface is not small with respect to the deformation of the components in contact. Contact stress output is of primary importance in many applications; for example, the distribution of contact pressures can be used to identify wear patterns and peak pressure values to determine relative lives of machine parts.

Abaqus/Standard offers techniques to improve the accuracy and robustness of contact computations based on comparisons between the initial faceted geometry and a more idealized initial geometry of the same surface. In some cases you may know that the idealized surface is (exactly or approximately) cylindrical, spherical, or toroidal. Abaqus/CAE identifies cylindrical, spherical, and toroidal surfaces automatically. When creating finite element models as CAD representations in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, idealized surface representations are often available for selection.

The following topics are discussed:

Related Topics
About general contact in Abaqus/Standard
About contact pairs in Abaqus/Standard
In Other Guides
*CONTACT
*CONTACT PAIR
*SURFACE PROPERTY ASSIGNMENT
*SURFACE SMOOTHING

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