Contact Analysis - Theory and Concepts: Theodore Sussman, PH.D

Contact analysis - theory and concepts
Theodore Sussman, Ph.D.
© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 1

Overview
• Review of contact concepts
– segments, surfaces, groups, pairs
• Interaction of contactor nodes and target segments

– constraint function method
– contact compliance
– convergence criteria
– offsets
– initial penetration feature
• Some implications of contact algorithm assumptions in practical analysis

Contact concepts
• 2-D and 3-D contact.

• Contacting areas are not known
beforehand.
• Frictionless contact or frictional
contact with sticking and slipping.

Node-surface algorithm
• Contact prevents contactor nodes from penetrating target segments.
Very small contact force Very large contact force

Node-surface algorithm
• Nodes from the contactor surface cannot penetrate the target segments,
but nodes from the target surface can penetrate contactor segments.
Contactor
Target

Single-sided contact group
• In a single-sided contact group, all contact surfaces are single-sided.
Contact can only occur from one direction.
• The contact surface normal from the target surface is used in single-
sided contact to determine the direction of contact..
Contact can occur

from this direction
Contact
surface
normal

Double-sided contact group
• In a double-sided contact group, all contact surfaces are double-sided.
Contact can occur from either or both directions.
• Only 3-D contact groups can be double-sided.
• The contact surface normal is not used to determine if a contactor node

is in contact.
As seen from
the side

Symmetric contact
It is allowed to create symmetric contact:

Self-contact
• It is allowed for the same surface to be the target and the contactor in
the same contact pair. This is called self-contact.
One double-sided
contact surface.

Examples of single and double-sided contact
Single-sided contact is Double-sided contact is suitable for
suitable for solid targets: shells:
Self-contact
Shell structures, as seen from

Solid structure, as seen from the side
the side, separate contactor Symmetric
and target contact,
pair 1 = S1, S2
pair 2 = S2, S1
pair 3 = S2, S3
pair 4 = S3, S2

Constraint-function algorithm
Target Contactor  Ideal contact
 
Normal contact
force  g
Gap g

Constraint
function
g   g  
2
w( g ,  )      N  0
2  2  g
Increasing N smooths out the contact

Constraint-function algorithm
• For friction, there is a parameter T (default 0.001)
Ft Ft

Fn Fn
u u
T
Ideal friction Friction model, T specified
Increasing T smooths out the transition between sticking and slipping.

Contact compliance
 P = compliance factor CFACTOR1

A = contactor node area

Convergence criteria
• An additional norm is used to assess convergence:
CFORCE= contact force vector increment 2
CNORM= contact force vector 2
RCONSM=reference contact force level

(default 0.01)
CFORCE
 RCTOL
max(CFNORM, RCONSM)
RCTOL default = 0.05, which is too loose for some problems.

Convergence example
OUT-OF- NORM OF CONVERGENCE RATIOS CONVERGENCE RATIOS

BALANCE OUT-OF-BALANCE NORM OF INCREMENTAL FOR OUT-OF-BALANCE FOR INCREMENTAL
ENERGY FORCE MOMENT DISP. ROTN. CFORCE ENERGY FORCE DISP. CFORCE
(EQ MAX) (EQ MAX) (EQ MAX) (EQ MAX) CFNORM MOMENT ROTN.
VALUE VALUE VALUE VALUE
COMPARE WITH COMPARE WITH
ETOL RTOL DTOL RCTOL
(NOT USED) (NOT USED)
ITE= 13 0.15E-08 0.16E-03 0.54E-04 0.75E-03 0.18E-05 0.67E-03 0.79E-11 0.16E-01 0.00E+00 0.14E-04
( 12)( 764)( 362)( 24) 0.46E+02 0.54E-02 0.00E+00
-0.68E-04 0.19E-04 0.87E-04 -0.21E-06
ITE= 14 0.19E-09 0.57E-04 0.19E-04 0.27E-03 0.65E-06 0.24E-03 0.10E-11 0.57E-02 0.00E+00 0.52E-05
( 12)( 769)( 367)( 29) 0.46E+02 0.19E-02 0.00E+00
0.25E-04 -0.70E-05 -0.31E-04 0.77E-07

Contact surface offsets
• Normally, contact occurs on the surface defined by the nodes of the
contact segments. However, the contact can be offset from this surface
using contact surface offsets.

Example of contact surface offsets
• One use of the offsets is to account for the thicknesses of shell elements.
The contact surfaces are defined on the midsurfaces, and the offsets
account for the thicknesses.

Initial penetrations
• Sometimes the two contacting parts geometrically overlap at the start of the
solution. This overlap might be due, at least in part, to the geometric
discretization used.
• There are special options used to set the contact surface offsets, in order to
control the initial penetrations.

Contact surface offsets for initial penetrations
• This feature is implemented using a variable OFFCON stored for each contactor
node. OFFCON gives the (signed) distance between the nodal position and the
position used to test contact.

Comments for OFFCON
• OFFCON is set separately for each contactor node.
• OFFCON is not adjusted for the possible tangential motion of the contactor node.
At time 0, gap is zero.
At time t, gap is greater than zero,

even though node has penetrated target.

Contact tractions
• The contact tractions are computed only for the contactor surfaces.
• The contact tractions are calculated from the contact forces.
• The contact tractions are calculated at the nodes that are in contact.

Implications of node-surface algorithm
• When a contactor node slips off of the target, the solution
changes discontinuously.
No more contact
force on this node
Whenever possible, make sure that contactor nodes can always

find targets.

• “Knife-edge” contact cannot be modeled.
Before interpenetration After interpenetration,

no contact forces generated

• Coarse curved target causes some contactor nodes not to be in contact.
Example problem:
Displacements at edge of
contactor are prescribed.
Contactor is attached to shell

elements.
Target is rigid.
We will consider the effect of changing
the modeling of the target.

Uniform meshing of target:
State of contact:
All nodes along a line

are in contact.

Non-uniform meshing of target:
State of contact:
Only some nodes along

a line are in contact.

Non-uniform meshing of target, compliance factor:
All nodes along the line are in contact, but now there is overlap
between contactor and target.

Change of state of contactor nodes
• The equilibrium iterations can converge only when the state of all contactor
nodes is known (whether the node is in contact, and whether the node is
sticking or slipping in frictional contact). Thus, when the states of the contactor
nodes are changing during the equilibrium iterations, the equilibrium iterations
cannot converge.
• For many cases, only a few contactor nodes change state during the step. Then
convergence is relatively easy.
• But in some situations, many contactor nodes may change state during a step,
and cutting back the step size does not help.
Time t, not in contact. Time t+t, in contact.

• This type of situation is most frequently encountered when solving for an
“initial condition”, for example, in metal forming when applying the blank
holder force before the motion of the punch.
• One characteristic of the equilibrium iterations is that the number of

equilibrium iterations increases as the number of nodes on the contactor surface
increases. Thus refining the mesh causes the number of equilibrium iterations
to increase.
• The norms of the out-of-balance force and other convergence indicators do not
decrease for many equilibrium iterations. Then, once the state of the contactor
nodes is known, the indicators decrease suddenly and the solution converges.

• Use DIAGNOSTICS SOLUTION=DETAILED to see if contactor nodes are
changing state.

Illustrative problem, showing contact convergence
Prescribed Beam structure modeled

displacement using shell elements Target is rigid
Settings used:
Limiting displacements feature turned off
No compliance factor

Equilibrium iteration 0
OUT-OF- NORM OF
BALANCE OUT-OF-BALANCE NORM OF INCREMENTAL
ENERGY FORCE MOMENT DISP. ROTN. CFORCE
NODE-DOF NODE-DOF NODE-DOF NODE-DOF CFNORM
MAX VALUE MAX VALUE MAX VALUE MAX VALUE
ITE= 0 1.00E-05 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 4.47E-02 3.61E-10 0.00E+00

1-Z 1-X 11-Z 15-X 0.00E+00
0.00E+00 0.00E+00 -1.00E-02 9.13E-11
Diagnostics: -----------------------------------------------------------
- Maximum incremental displacement 5.556 % of model size.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Areas in contact drawn in green
OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 1 -1.10E-12 5.08E-10 2.59E-12 3.62E-02 3.66E-01 1.11E+02

20-Z 14-X 4-Z 19-X 0.00E+00
-3.42E-10 1.34E-12 9.90E-03 1.44E-01
Diagnostics: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nodes coming into contact. 10 nodes including node 5 with penetration = 9.900E-03
- Maximum initial penetrations 5.500 % of model size.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact forces acting on contactor
OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 2 1.10E-13 1.33E-09 2.57E-12 1.14E-03 6.05E-02 1.12E+02

5-Z 6-X 7-Z 16-X 1.11E+02
-8.49E-10 1.50E-12 -4.81E-04 3.07E-02
Diagnostics: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nodes losing contact. 4 nodes including node 15 with contact force = 5.501E+01
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 3 4.25E-15 2.70E-10 1.01E-12 1.62E-03 7.95E-02 1.12E+02

8-Z 9-X 3-Z 12-X 2.64E+01
-1.75E-10 6.25E-13 6.97E-04 -3.07E-02
Diagnostics: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nodes coming into contact. 2 nodes including node 2 with penetration = 9.428E-05
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 4 -5.72E-14 3.21E-10 8.92E-13 1.87E-02 4.56E-01 1.96E+01

20-Z 21-X 1-Z 1-X 1.23E+01
-2.15E-10 6.96E-13 9.97E-03 1.65E-01
Diagnostics: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equilibrium iterations 5, 6
OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 5 -2.86E-21 4.25E-10 1.44E-12 2.94E-11 6.73E-10 1.03E+01

20-Z 10-X 12-Z 2-X 2.23E+00
1.78E-10 -7.11E-13 1.52E-11 2.28E-10
ITE= 6 2.74E-23 2.88E-10 1.95E-12 3.85E-13 9.73E-12 2.45E-08

2-Z 9-X 12-Z 1-X 2.23E+00
1.56E-10 1.25E-12 2.11E-13 3.81E-12

Contact behavior of tip node
Graph shows location of tip node on the constraint function curve for each
equilibrium iteration.
Not drawn to scale.

Number of equilibrium iterations vs mesh refinement
100
Number of equilibrium iterations
10
1
1 10 100 1000
Number of nodes in target area

Contact forces on higher-order elements
• To model a uniform traction on the face of a 20-node brick element,
nodal point forces acting in the opposite direction are required.

• To model a uniform traction on the face of a 27-node brick element, the
corner nodal point forces are small, but in the correct directions.

• The node-surface algorithm cannot be directly used for the corner
nodes, since the corner nodes might be in contact with tensile forces.
• This issue arises with the 20 and

21-node brick elements, and with
the 10, 11-node tet elements.
• In order to allow the program to

accept tensile contact forces, use
the command
CONTACT-CONTROL ...
TENSION-CONSISTENT=YES

Contact-impact problem, convergence issues
• Consider the following simplified contact-impact problem:

Contact-impact problem, results at impact
OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 0 4.00E+00 4.00E+08 0.00E+00 1.00E-08 0.00E+00 5.57E-05

2 0 2 0 3.98E-05
-4.00E+08 0.00E+00 -1.00E-08 0.00E+00
ITE= 1 2.83E-29 6.06E-09 0.00E+00 4.67E-21 0.00E+00 1.87E-04

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 9.56E-05
6.06E-09 0.00E+00 4.67E-21 0.00E+00
ITE= 2 5.58E-28 2.07E-08 0.00E+00 2.70E-20 0.00E+00 1.08E-03

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 2.82E-04
2.07E-08 0.00E+00 2.70E-20 0.00E+00
ITE= 3 -1.57E-26 3.15E-08 0.00E+00 4.99E-19 0.00E+00 1.99E-02

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 1.36E-03
-3.15E-08 0.00E+00 4.99E-19 0.00E+00
ITE= 4 -1.06E-24 9.31E-09 0.00E+00 1.14E-16 0.00E+00 4.56E+00

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 2.13E-02
-9.31E-09 0.00E+00 1.14E-16 0.00E+00

Contact-impact problem, results at impact
OUT-OF- NORM OF
ITE= 5 3.99E-20 7.61E-09 0.00E+00 5.25E-12 0.00E+00 2.10E+05

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 4.58E+00
7.61E-09 0.00E+00 5.25E-12 0.00E+00
ITE= 6 2.87E-16 2.87E-08 0.00E+00 9.99E-09 0.00E+00 4.00E+08

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 2.10E+05
2.87E-08 0.00E+00 9.99E-09 0.00E+00
ITE= 7 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 9.07E-15 0.00E+00 4.00E+08

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 4.00E+08
0.00E+00 0.00E+00 9.07E-15 0.00E+00
ITE= 8 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 1.39E-24 0.00E+00 3.63E+02

2-Z 0-F 2-Z 0-F 4.00E+08
0.00E+00 0.00E+00 -1.39E-24 0.00E+00

Contact-impact problem
• Why did the problem take so long to converge?
– In dynamic analysis, the effective stiffness is dependent on the time step
size. The smaller the time step, the larger the effective stiffness.
– The effective stiffness is much larger that the compliance assumed in the
constraint-function algorithm.
Need to iterate long enough

to reach convergence.

Contact-impact problem
• In a practical problem, with many nodes impacting at slightly different times,
the solution can converge prematurely, due to norms used to measure
convergence.
• To prevent this, use tighter tolerances and set RCONSM very small. Make sure
that CFORCE < CFNORM at convergence.
• The value of N can also be decreased from its default value.

Contact Analysis - Theory and Concepts: Theodore Sussman, PH.D

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Contact Analysis - Theory and Concepts: Theodore Sussman, PH.D

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Contact analysis - theory and concepts

Theodore Sussman, Ph.D.

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 1

• Interaction of contactor nodes and target segments

• Some implications of contact algorithm assumptions in practical analysis

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 2

• 2-D and 3-D contact.

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 3

Very small contact force Very large contact force

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 4

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 5

Contact can occur

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 6

• Only 3-D contact groups can be double-sided.

• The contact surface normal is not used to determine if a contactor node

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 7

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 8

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 9

Shell structures, as seen from

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 10

Target Contactor  Ideal contact

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 11

Ideal friction Friction model, T specified

Increasing T smooths out the transition between sticking and slipping.

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 12

 P = compliance factor CFACTOR1

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 13

CFORCE= contact force vector increment 2

CNORM= contact force vector 2

RCONSM=reference contact force level

RCTOL default = 0.05, which is too loose for some problems.

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 14

OUT-OF- NORM OF CONVERGENCE RATIOS CONVERGENCE RATIOS

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 15

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 16

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 17

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 18

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 19

At time 0, gap is zero.

At time t, gap is greater than zero,

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 20

• The contact tractions are calculated from the contact forces.

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 21

Whenever possible, make sure that contactor nodes can always

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 22

Before interpenetration After interpenetration,

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 23

Contactor is attached to shell

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 24

All nodes along a line

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 25

Only some nodes along

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 26

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 27

Time t, not in contact. Time t+t, in contact.

• One characteristic of the equilibrium iterations is that the number of

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 29

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 30

Prescribed Beam structure modeled

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 31

ITE= 0 1.00E-05 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 4.47E-02 3.61E-10 0.00E+00

© ADINA R&D, Inc, 2016 32

Areas in contact drawn in green