Rolling Contact in

Dynamic Analysis using ADINA

Daniel Jose Payen, Ph.D.

March 10, 2016

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 Presentation Overview
• Problem description

• Recommendations for a smooth contact

response

• In-depth discussion to understand the

reasons behind these recommendations

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 Rolling Contact in Dynamic Analysis
• Class of problem where the dynamic behavior of two or
more bodies rolling over each other is important

• Examples including analysis of bearings, cams, gears,

multi-body assemblies (e.g. scroll compressors), etc.

• Finite element analysis accounts for flexibility of bodies

which is important for the correct vibrational response

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 Rocker Problem Description
Consider the problem shown below where a rocker is held
in a tilted position, and then released and allowed to rock
under gravitational loading

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 Rocker Problem

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 Rocker Problem
• Obtaining smooth contact forces and accelerations is
more difficult than obtaining smooth displacements and
stresses

• Simple rocker problem demonstrates how a smooth

contact response can be obtained using ADINA

• Model captures elastic response, including vibrational

modes

• Fourier analysis can be performed on the solution to

determine resonance frequencies

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Recommendations for Smooth Contact
Response
• Use Bathe implicit time integration method with time
step size that accurately captures frequency range of
interest

• Use large displacement kinematic assumptions

• Use tight contact force convergence tolerance

(RCTOL=1.0E-3)

• Use fine first-order mesh for the contactor surface. This

can be achieved using 3D plane stress (membrane)
elements

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Recommendations for Smooth Contact
Response
• Use good initial conditions, where contact is established
before releasing the rocker

• Use the minimum amount of contact-compliance needed

to remove the spurious high frequency oscillations and
prevent contact reversal

• Note that applying Rayleigh damping is not an effective

way of removing spurious high frequency oscillation
from the contact response

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Use Bathe Implicit Time Integration

• When using the Bathe method, the time step size is

selected based solely on the physics of the problem, not
on numerical stability considerations

• If the maximum frequency of interest is fmax (in Hertz), the

time step size Δt (in secs) that should be used is:

1  1 
t   
20  f max 

• Note that the Bathe method automatically ‘cuts out’ from

the solution frequencies greater than
 1 
f  
 t 
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Use Fine First-Order Mesh for Contactor Surface

• First-order mesh is recommended for the contactor

surface as Hertzian line contact is expected

• If second-order elements are used, the stresses are very

sensitive to whether line contact is established on the
midside or corner nodes

• Contact response is very sensitive to the mesh density of

contactor surface. The finer the contactor surface, the
smoother the contact response

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Use Fine First-Order Mesh for Contactor Surface

• All three meshes accurately capture the curvature of the

rocker

• The finer the contactor surface, the smoother the contact

response

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Use Fine First-Order Mesh for Contactor Surface
• In the exact solution, the contact location continuously moves as
rocker rotates
• In the finite element solution, because of the discretization error,
the rocker rotates a finite angle before the next contactor node
comes into contact. As a result:
 The contactor node “impacts” the target when it comes into contact
 There is an offset error between the finite element and the actual
contact location

• The finer contactor surface, the smaller the impacts, the smaller
the offset error, and hence the smoother the contact response
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 3D Plane Stress (Membrane) Elements

• Fine contactor surface can be obtained by mesh glueing a

fine mesh of 4-node membrane elements to the solid
elements

• Meshing glueing fine mesh of membrane elements gives

same results as using a fine solid mesh
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Benefits of Using Membrane Elements

• Mesh density of contactor surface can be easily adjusted

• Coarse mesh of solid elements can be used without

affecting the contact response

• Tetrahedral solid elements can be used without affecting

the contact response

• Second-order elements can be used without affecting the

contact response

• The overall model will have fewer DOF as significantly

fewer solid elements need to be used

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The Membrane Elements Should:

• Be the contactor surface

• Have material properties and thickness such that the

membrane elements are at least 1E-5 times less stiff than
the solid elements

• Have zero density

• In the mesh glue pair, the membrane elements should be

the slave surface to ensure they are “tightly” glued

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Membrane Elements Must be Mesh Glue Slave
• Spurious oscillations are generated if the membrane
elements is the mesh glue master surface because the
elements will not be “tightly” glued and will wrinkle under
load affecting the contact response

• Recall that glueing constraints are generated for each

DOF on the slave surface of the mesh glue pair
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 Effect of Membrane Elements as Mesh Glue Slave

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Use Good Initial Conditions
• Initial conditions can introduce an unphysical transient response
(jerk) in the solution
• Ramp up loads same as in real life to prevent “jerk” response
• Establish contact before releasing the rocker. This is especially
important when contact-compliance is used

• Physically, with contact-compliance, rocker acts as though its on

a “bed of springs”. Hence, if the rocker is dropped, it bounces
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Use Good Initial Conditions
• To establish contact, a prescribed displacement of zero
magnitude is applied to point 1
• The prescribed displacement is held for 1 sec, then released over
0.02 sec using the time unloading option in ADINA
• The time unloading option replaces the prescribed displacement
with the equivalent reaction force
• If the prescribed displacement is immediately released, the
rocker will again bounce with a small oscillatory load

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Effect of Friction
• Friction affects the contact response since it changes the force
and moment balance of the system
• Below figure shows contact response when CFACTOR1=1E-3,
with and without friction

• With friction, the peak contact force decays as rocker rotates

indicating that energy is dissipated by the frictional forces

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Effect of Friction
• The amount of energy dissipated to friction can be quantified
using the ADINA energy calculation feature

• We find that after three cycles, 0.4% of the system’s total energy
is dissipated due to friction

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Effect of Friction
• In the exact solution, no energy is dissipated to friction because
contact acts along a line, and the velocity of the line is zero
• In the finite element model with contact-compliance, contact acts
over a rectangular patch, and the velocity of this patch is not
zero
• The frictional forces in the center of the patch act in the opposite
direction to the frictional forces away from the center

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Effect of Friction
• It is expected that the frictional forces in the center act in the
opposite direction since the velocity acts in the opposite
direction

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Use Contact-Compliance
• Contact-compliance can be used to remove spurious high
frequency oscillations from the contact response

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Use Contact-Compliance
• With contact-compliance, the contactor nodes penetrate the
target which:

 Softens the spurious impact forces that occur due to the

discretization error

 Reduces the offset error as contact is now over a

rectangular patch

• However, contact-compliance can cause the rocker to bounce,

and can cause spurious energy dissipation for frictional contact

• Therefore, use the smallest amount of contact-compliance that

removes the spurious oscillations. This is model dependent

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Effect of Rayleigh Damping
• Rayleigh damping is not an effective way of removing spurious
high frequency oscillations from the contact response as --

 Rayleigh damping does not reduce the spurious impact

forces generated due to the discretization error

 Rayleigh damping does not reduce the contact point offset

error

• Rayleigh damping artificially damps the frequencies of interest

without significantly damping the spurious high frequency
response

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Effect of Rayleigh Damping

• The below figures show the response for various different

stiffness-proportional Rayleigh damping factors (CFACTOR1=0
for all models)

Beta = 1E-8

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