The COSMOS Companion

Modeling Contact in COSMOSWorks

Volume 108

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What is the COSMOS Companion?

The COSMOS Companion is a series of short subjects to help design engineers build better products with SolidWorks Analysis Video presentations and accompanying exercises A tool for Continuous Learning on your schedule Pre-recorded videos are accompanied by a more detailed webcast with Q & A
Download videos and review webcast schedule at:
http://www.cosmosm.com/pages/news/COSMOS_Companion.html

It is not an alternative to instructor-led introductory training

We highly recommend you take a course with your local reseller to build a solid knowledge base

Why Contact Analysis?

Contact conditions allow parts to interact with each other more naturally It is good practice is to use a contact interaction between parts of similar stiffness instead of trying to model that interaction with Loads/Restraints Without a contact condition defined, two meshes, or two elements within the same mesh, that arent joined at a common node, dont know the other exists. Contact, in COSMOSWorks, also allows a user to Bond parts together where they touch In COSMOSWorks, using contact is so straightforward, it is to every users advantage to take advantage of it where applicable There is still some information that will aid you in the use of contact for simulating your designs

Contact Definition Options

Set Global Contact Three options
Bonded (Default) Free/No Interaction No Penetration

Compatible vs. Incompatible

Available for Bonded only When two surfaces are touching:
Using Compatible, COSMOSWorks will imprint each face with the intersection of the two and force a matching mesh on both More accurate local solution but can cause meshing problems Using Incompatible, both parts are meshed without any consideration of the other and internal constraint equations tie the intersecting faces together.

If assemblies with bonded contact fail to mesh, try using the Incompatible Mesh option

Contact Definition Options

Always set Global to Free if there isnt a reason to leave it Bonded Will improve meshing and forces you to consider each contact condition

Contact Definition Options

When multiple contact conditions are specified for an entity, they are enforced as follows:
Local contact conditions override global and component contact conditions. Component contact conditions override global contact conditions. Global contact condition will be used for all touching faces for which no component or local contact condition has been specified

Contact Definition Options

Define Contact Set Manually choose Source and Target sets Select Contact Options Choose Friction if this is desired
Source Target

Dont necessarily expect that a Coeff. Of Friction in FEA will correlate exactly with test data Some iterative adjustment may be required if this is critical Adds complexity to the solution and should be left off unless needed Remember that real-world friction is difficult to measure and even more difficult to control Use this cautiously

Contact Definition Options

Find Contact Sets Choose 2 or more components When you select Choose Touching Faces, COSMOSWorks will identify potential contact pairs Choose No Penetration, Bonded, or Free For No Penetration choose:
Node-to-Node Node-to-Surface Surface-to-Surface

This is the fastest way to find and set contact pairs that will not use the Global Contact setting

Source and Target

COSMOSWorks differentiates the two entity selections for a contact pair as the Source and the Target One way of looking at them is to assume the Source acts on the Target
COSMOSWorks attempts to project Source entities onto the Target

It can make a difference which entities get assigned to each!

Source and Target

Choice of Source & Target is unimportant in these cases:
Free (No Interaction) Bonded Contact with Compatible Mesh Option No Penetration with Node-to-Node Option

Choice of Source & Target can be critical to both convergence and solution time for all other contact conditions, including Shrink Fit An entity can be defined as a Source in one contact set and a Target in another Both Source & Target selections can include multiple entities
All entities in either Source or Target, should belong to the same body, respectively

Source and Target

Target

Target

Source Source

Acceptable Contact Set

Unacceptable Contact Set

Source and Target

Choosing the Target Entities In general, the Target should be the stiffer of two parts in a Contact Set While the Source set can be Vertices, Edges, and Faces, the Target must only be Faces
Vertices and Edges are only allowed in Node-to-Surface (Surface)

Target should be flatter and larger than Source Target can be meshed more coarse than Source Target should have no sharp corners or small fillets in the area of contact

Source and Target

Best Best Source

Target Bad Better Ideally, Source and Target would be switched Small round on Target is better If Source and Target cant be switched, the best solution would be to create 2-3 contact sets

Contact Types
No Penetration
Primary reason to use contact Defines regions in the model that cant pass thru each other

Bonded
Welds or Glues entities together

Shrink Fit
Allows press fit or interference fit interactions

Free (No Interaction) Virtual Wall

Useful when a part contacts ground or a large flat rigid surface Available for a single part User selects a Reference Plane Local compliance, or Virtual Wall stiffness, can be specified

Contact Options
Node-to-Node
Gap Elements Contacting surfaces must touch initially Assumes direction of normal contact force and points of contact are known in advance and remain unchanged throughout analysis Applied force should be parallel to the contact normal force or pressure Shouldnt be used if sliding is expected Contacting surfaces should be relatively flat and parallel COSMOSWorks requires a Compatible mesh and will attempt to line up the nodes between the Target and Source Use with care as this option is limited

Contact Options
Node-to-Surface Gap elements attached to the nodes on the Source and element faces on the Target Advantages over Node-to-Node Gap Contact:
The user does not need to know the exact location of the point of contact a priori. The program internally will determine that location and apply the contact forces accordingly. The direction of the contact forces is determined by the program based on the deformed shape of the entities in contact. The nodal points on the contacting entities do not need to match each other.

Shrink Fit conditions use this type of contact

Contact Options
Surface-to-Surface More general than node to node and node to surface contacts Suitable for complex contacts with general loading Most resource intensive contact algorithm Not recommended when the area of contact between a source face and target face becomes too small or reduces to a line or point during deformation. In such cases, use the Node-to-Surface option

Contact Options
Summary of Options:

Best Good Fair

Fair Good Best

Poor Good Best

Fair Best Fair

Bonded Contact in v2006

Overlapping Surfaces or Faces
Clearance allowed COSMOS will provide a warning if clearance is large compared to global element size If the gap is too large, COSMOS will provide a message that bonding did not occur and give user chance to stop analysis

Edges and Vertices (Source) to Face (Target)

Clearance Allowed

Interfering Edges or Faces

COSMOS will provide a warning if clearance is large compared to global element size

Bonded Contact in v2006

Works with Compatible & Incompatible Meshes General Guidelines:
Bonding internally uses constraint equations to match the displacements and rotations of the two parts. This command is currently applicable to linear and nonlinear static, frequency, buckling and heat transfer analyses. When bonding solids and shells, it is advisable to use shells as the Source and solids as the Target In problems where the stress concentration at the bonded intersection is critical, both parts should have a fine mesh in this region. Result local to the bonded contact deteriorate as the difference in stiffness between parts increases. Local mesh refinement helps. It is advisable for the mesh on the Source set to have more nodes than the Target set if the meshes are incompatible

Compatible vs. Incompatible Mesh

If Split Lines are used to force coincidence between edges & faces, the meshes will be Compatible, regardless of the option setting

Compatible

Incompatible

Study Properties Gap/Contact

Include Global Friction

Pre-sets the Coeff. Of Friction for all applicable contact studies to the defined value If Global Contact is set to No Penetration, all contact sets defined automatically will have friction activated at the specified value DOES NOT automatically activate friction on manually defined contact sets. Option must still be selected per contact set

Study Properties Gap/Contact

Ignore Clearance for Surface Contact Used with Node-to-Surface contact only When Off:
Initial contact between a node and the associated face is assumed if the initial distance is less than or equal to 0.5% of the global element size. If the initial distance exceeds the threshold, no initial contact is assumed.

When On:
Initial contact (between each node and its associated face) is assumed regardless of the initial distance between them. The initial gaps will be ignored during contact iterations.

This option should be turned Off (default) for most applications. It is specifically designed to take care of a specific situation when, due to tolerances, a small clearance exists between faces that should have been initially in contact. Incompatible meshes are likely when there is a small clearance between faces of similar curvature. If mesh positioning causes numerical penetration (Not physical penetration), it should be within the tolerance stated above. However, if convergence fails, re-try with this option On The option should be Off when the two contact sets have large curvature differences.

Linear vs. Nonlinear Contact

Basic contact in a Static Study defaults to a Linear contact algorithm where certain assumptions are made to improve solution speed
Very small or no gaps between contacting parts Little or no sliding External load is parallel to contact element Faces that touch stay in contact

Contact Pressure Contact Pressure

OK Not OK

Linear vs. Nonlinear Contact

If any of the linear conditions are violated, choose Large Displacement in Study Properties
Note that if Large Displacement is not turned on, the linear solution may complete without any warning messagesthis doesnt mean the solution is correct

If Large Displacement is required, Node-to-Node should be avoided

Contact Pressure

Be advised that a solution using Large Displacement will take longer to solve

Linear vs. Nonlinear Contact

Max. Displacement Large Displacement Standard Contact 0.0042 0.0039

Max. Von Mises Stress 53000.0 43000.0

Final Contact

Initial Contact

Linear vs. Nonlinear Contact

Standard Static studies, even with Large Displacement, only report the final solution An animation shows a linear path from the initial position of the assembly to the final position If your results are path dependent, you may not have all the data you need to properly understand the results One benefit of a nonlinear analysis is the ability calculate and plot results at intermediate steps
Advanced Professional package required

Other Contact Tips

Split lines to reduce Source area can improve solution efficiency Split lines to reduce Target area will have no effect on solution In general, a more refined mesh on contact faces will result in better and faster converging contact Too fine a mesh on a Target surface could cause convergence issues

Presentation Summary
In this COSMOS Companion unit, we explored the Ins & Outs of contact set definition The capabilities & limitations of each option were reviewed Recommendations for contact set choices were outlined The benefits of Large Displacement & Nonlinear options were reviewed

Conclusion
For more information
Contact your local reseller for more in-depth training or support on using contact conditions in your design work Review the on-line help for a more detailed description of the features discussed Attend, or better yet, present at a local COSMOS or SolidWorks user group.
See http://www.swugn.org/ for a user group near you