This topic and its subtopic pages concern the options for general surface-to-surface contact in
nonlinear analyses. For contact options related to linear, thermal, or electrostatic analyses, or concerning bonded or welded contact, refer to the following pages in the
General Information (Common to Multiple Analysis Types)
branch of the Help:
You cannot set the default contact type to
Surface
in a nonlinear analysis. To access the
Contact Options
dialog for nonlinear surface contact pairs, double-click an explicitly defined
Surface contact pair heading in the browser (tree view). You can also select one or more headings, right-click, and choose
Edit Settings from the context menu. Using this method, you can customize the parameters for two or more contact pairs simultaneously.
When the
Contact Options
dialog appears, choose one of the following two options from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog:
- SimMech contact options: Settings affecting contact behavior when you run the simulation using the native Simulation Mechanical (SimMech) solver. Refer to the
Simulation Mechanical Surface Contact Options (Nonlinear)page.
- Nastran contact (BSCONP) options: Settings affecting contact behavior when you run the simulation using the Autodesk Nastran solver. General and advanced Nastran contact options are the same for all analysis and contact types. Refer to the
Nastran Contact Options page in the
General Information (Common to Multiple Analysis Types)
branch of the Help.
Tip: For convenience, you can copy the settings from one contact pair to one or more target contact pairs. To do so:
- Right-click the source contact pair heading in the browser and choose
Copy Settings from the context menu.
- Select one or more target contact pair headings in the browser.
- Right-click a selected heading and choose
Paste Settings from the context menu.
Important: In addition to the settings for explicitly defined contact pairs, there are global settings controlling contact element updating during the solution. Please refer to the
General Contact Settings (Nonlinear) page to learn about the contact element updating parameters.
There is no single set of contact parameter values that will provide an accurate solution for all models. You must have a good understanding of the functionality of the contact parameters to determine a proper set of values for each problem.