Introduction

This document covers the Contact Surfaces and Interface definition for Radioss Bulk Data format in brief.
The contactsurfs and interfaces panels can be accessed from the Analysis page as shown in the picture
below:

ContactSurfaces
Contact Surfaces can be created from the contactsurfs panel. Contact Surafaces can be created on shell
or solid elements. To create them, enter a name, set the card image to SURF and select the elements
and finally click on create.

For solid elements, in addition to selecting the elements, a minimum of 3 nodes on the selected elements
must also be specified to define the surface The image below shows the conatctsurfs panels for creating
contact surfaces on solid elements:

Tip/Trick#: 1007
HWProduct: HyperMesh/RADIOSS
HWVersion: HW10.0andGreater
Category: ContactSurfaceandInterfaceCreation
Topic: ContactswithRADIOSS

Once created, contact surfaces are visualized as pyramids pointing in the direction of the normal to the
element/element face:

The normals for the contact surfaces can be reversed if required from the adjust normals subpanel in the
contactsurfs panel.

Please note that the entities representing the contact surface are not FE entities. Theyre geometric
entities stored under the heading Contact Surfaces in the model browser.

Interfaces
Interfaces define the interaction between two contact surfaces/node sets. If contact surfaces are to be
used, it should be noted that the normals of the two opposing surfaces must point towards each other.

The following types of contact interfaces are defined:
a. By Property Type:
1. SLIDE Sliding contact
2. STICK Contact with stick condition (stick applies to closed contacts only)
3. FREEZE Enforced zero relative displacements on the contact interface
(applies to both closed and open contacts)

b. By Property ID:
Define using a PCONT card

Further, its possible to define orientation of the pushing force of the master surface using the MORIENT
card entry which has the following options:

1. OPENGAP The contact interface is assumed open
2. OVERLAP Slave and master bodies overlap
3. NORM Contact force is oriented along the vector normal to the master surface
4. REVNORM Contact force is oriented opposite to the default vector normal to the master surface

While Slide, Stick and Freeze define an interface without friction, the definition of PCONT card allows
users to enter a value for the coefficient of friction at the contact interface.

To define an interface, go to interfaces panel in the Analysis page and enter a name and select
CONTACT as the card image, as shown in the image below:

Click on create and go to the add sub-panel to add the master and slave surfaces. Select the
corresponding contact surface under master and slave headings and click on update for each case:



Next go to card image and select the interface just created by clicking on name= and click on edit and
define the card as per requirement:



Please refer to following Card Definitions on the Online Help for detailed information about them:
1. SURF (Contact Surface Definition)
2. CONTACT (Contact Surface Definition)