Contacts in Simulation studies

When simulating the behavior of two components in an assembly under load conditions, you may need to define a Contact to describe the interface between them, and thereby cause the bodies to interact appropriately. Without a defined contact, the bodies could pass through each other during the simulation. Contact conditions can be applied to the simulation, automatically or manually. Automatic Contacts are generated by default during the solve, using the Bonded contact type.

Not applicable to:
Electronics cooling study

Note: If you have two separate bodies at the beginning of the analysis, an automatic contact will not be created if the distace between them is larger than the Contact Detection Tolerance.

Event Simulation

In an Event Simulation study, contact pairs are generated automatically for every body via the Automatic Contacts command. The default Separation type of contact is not generated automatically as part of the solve in this study type. The default Separation contact type allows bodies to separate from one another after they come into contact; the Default Friction Coefficient controls how bodies slide across from one another, accounting for frictional forces.

Contact Types

There are 6 contact types you can manually define in the Simulation Workspace:

Bonded
Offset Bonded
Separation
Sliding
Rough
No Contact

Automatic contacts use the Bonded contact type.