Using Contact Surfaces
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Cubit 17.02 User Documentation

Using Contact Surfaces

The Contact Region

To define contact between two entities, Cubit requires each entity to be defined as a separate contact region. Each region can be made up of multiple 1D or 2D entities.

Create Contact Region [id] [Name <'name'>] [{Add|On} {Sideset|Surface|Curve|Face|Tri|Edge} <entity_list>]

Modify Contact Region {id_list|'name'|All} [Name <'name'>] [{Add|Remove} {Sideset|Surface|Curve|Face|Tri|Edge} <entity_list>]

The Contact Pair

create contact pair [id] [name <'name'>] [primary contact region <id|'name'>]  [secondary contact region <id|'name'>] [friction <value>] [tolerance <value>]  [tied {on|OFF}] [General <on|OFF> [Exterior <on|OFF>]]

modify contact pair {id_list|'name'|all} [name <'name'>] [primary contact region <id|'name'>] [secondary contact region <id|'name'>] [friction <value>] [tolerance <value>] [tied {on|OFF}] [General <on|OFF> [Exterior <on|OFF>]]

A contact pair is composed of two contact regions.  One region will be the ‘primary’ surface, and the other will be the ‘secondary.’  2D contact regions can not be mixed with 1D contact regions.  The friction coefficient can also be included.  The tolerance keyword is currently unused.  Use the tied keyword to specify that the contact is to define tied contact between the two contact regions, essentially “gluing” the parts together.  Currently, this option is only available when using the Abaqus Exporter.

The General keyword can be used to specify general (i.e. global) contact without specifying surfaces/curves to use as contact pairs. Currently, this keyword is only valid when exporting to Abaqus. If the Exterior keyword is used with the General keyword, then Abaqus will consider all exterior surfaces when determining contact regions. If the Exterior keyword is omitted, then the user must provide a primary contact region and/or a secondary contact region.

 

Auto-Contact Tool

With the auto-contact tool, Cubit can search for contact pairs and automatically set up all of the necessary contact regions and contact pairs.

Create Contact Autoselect [{Volume|Surface|Curve} <ids>] [Primary Volume <id>] [Maxgap <value>] [Curve_Contact]

The optional geometry list can be used to limit Cubit’s search to only a subset of entities. If this list is omitted, all bodies in the model will be searched. The optional primary volume keyword can be used to tell Cubit which volume should be used as the primary contact region. If this keyword is omitted, the user will not have control over which volume is the primary region. The maxgap keyword can be used to control how Cubit searches for contact regions. This value is used as the maximum amount of gap that can exist between two surfaces and be identified as a contact region. If this keyword is omitted, the geometry tolerance is used. The curve_contact keyword can be used to indicate the model requires curve contact as opposed to surface contact.