STANDARD: Normal contact closing and opening behavior, with normal sticking/sliding friction behavior.

ROUGH: Normal contact closing and opening behavior, but no sliding can occur. The surfaces are assumed to be
so rough that there is infinite Friction and there can be no relative Sliding.
BONDED: Target and contact surfaces are assumed to get
GLUED once contact is established.
BONDED CONTACT (always): Any contact detection points initially inside the pinball region or that come into
contact are bonded for the remainder of the analysis. This contact typically can be used to "ADD" two meshes in a
Assembly analysis where two parts have different meshes. A linear Static analysis can also be solved with this
contact. Though ansys would prompt for nonlinear analysis(due to presence of contact elements) a single iteration
is enough
BONDED CONTACT (initial contact): Bonds surfaces ONLY in initial contact, initially open surfaces will remain
open.
NO SEPERATION: Target and contact surfaces are tied once contact is established (sliding is permitted).
NO SEPERATION (always): Any contact detection points initially inside the pinball region or that come into
contact are tied in the normal direction (sliding is permitted).

How should I simulate interference? Between two parts there exists both interference as well as Gap
between their surfaces? Using STS Contact element, what factors need to be adjusted/set ?
In most of the FE models, the exact interfernce cannot be modeled with all that accuracy. Hence there exists a
parameter called CNOF which can be tweaked, either to set a interfernce or a Gap. A positive value of CNOF is
considered as INTERFERENCE, while a negative value of CNOF is considered as GAP. Using CNOF will either
move the Contact Surface inwards/outwards for the Analysis. The Target surface will not be moved. So, if you are
modeling contact btw two flexible bodies... please note that the surface designated as Target will not be offset. If
the model contains initial geometric penetration+CNOF, it is recommended to set the initial interference option to
"include with ramped effects". If this setting was not set, there is every chance that due to initial penetrations, the
contact forces will be stepped (not ramped) to a huge value and there is every possibility for a un-converged
solution. If both GAP and Interference exists in the model, different CNOF values will have to be specified
between the various surfaces of the Parts
RIGID body motion error. I have the FE model with well defined constraints. Yet I see this error in the very
beginning of the Solution. How can I avoid this error?
A rigid body motion can occur just before contact is established between two parts. You may use a displacement so
as to initiate contact in the first load step. In the second load step delete this displacement, and apply the reaction
force obtained from previous load step. This will switch your problem from displacement controlled problem to a
force controlled problem. In the subsequent load step(3) continue with the load history. Weak springs that are
connected to Ground can be used to control Rigid body motions. The Spring stiffness should be very small
compared to the stiffness of the system. Though, the spring may deform... its of no concern. The above two
techniques involve some experimentation from the user. Also, they cannot be used in all kinds of problems. They
are restricted. Ansys provides 3 parameters to control RIGID BODY MOTION 1. ICONT 2. PMIN-PMAX and 3.
CNOF 1. ICONT: This is a real-constant value, which specified a zone/band around thesurface of Target Elements.
Any contact points lying within this Zone, are shifted to the target surface. Ansys uses a small default value of
ICONT if not specified by the user. This value should not be set to ZERO. If set to Zero, Ansys uses a default
value. To turn it OFF specify a a very small value liek 1e-20. If there is a Gap of say 0.25mm between the Target

and the contact surface & this happens to be the first place where contact happens, then specify ICONT as 10%
more than this Gap. ICONT = 0.275mm Please note that ICONT is not any factor, its a constant value unlike other
parameters PMIN-PMAX: Use real constants PMIN and PMAX to specify an initial allowable penetration range.
The Target surface shall be moved into the Contact Surface and made to lie within PMIN-PMAX. This is acheived
with a few interations before the load history comes into effect. By using this feature, the gaps lying between
Contact and Target Surfaces will be converted into a initial closed contact. If any of the nodes on the Target
surface had constraints, then that particular node will not be moved in the constrained direction. 3. CNOF:

. In a Flexible-Flexible body contact, Why should the surface with finer Mesh be designated as Contact
Surface, and the other surface (with coarse mesh) be designated as Target?
The Finer mesh will have more contact detection points. This will help the analysis solve better. Please note that
elements/nodes on Target surface do not detect contact. In a flexible-flexible body contact, the choice of the target
and contact surface can cause a different amount of penetration and thus affect the solution accuracy. Choose that
surface which tends to move towards the other as the Contact Surface. (Assuming that both surfaces have same
mesh density & have relatively small difference in their structural stiffness)
Guidelines to choose Target/Contact Surface
1. If a convex surface comes into contact with a flat or concave surface, the flat or concave surface should be
the target surface.
2. If one surface has a coarse mesh and the other a fine mesh, the surface with the coarse mesh should be the
target surface.
3. If one surface is stiffer than the other, the stiffer surface should be the target surface.
4. If one surface is higher order and the other is lower order, the lower order surface should be the target
surface.
5. If one surface is larger than the other, the larger surface should be the target surface
6. What is Pinball Region ? What does it affect? What is its purpose in Contact Analysis?
7. Pinball region (PINB) affects the contact status determination. This Pinball Region is a circle (2D) or
sphere(3D) around the Contact element. This Region helps figure out how "far" and "near" regions around
the Contact element. If l ==> depth of underlying element, in Rigid-to-FLex Contact, the Pinball region is
4*l. For flex-flex contact, the Pinball Region is 2*l. The position and motion of a contact element relative
to its associated target surface determines the contact element status. ANSYS monitors each contact
element and assigns a status:
8. STAT = 0 Open far-field contact
9. STAT = 1 Open near-field contact
10. STAT = 2 Sliding contact
11. STAT = 3 Sticking contact
12. A contact element is considered to be in near-field contact when its contact element enters a pinball region,
which is centered on the integration point of the contact element.