A surface-to-surface contact definition can be used as an alternative to general
contact to model contact interactions between specific surfaces in a model.
Certain interaction behaviors can be defined only by using surface-to-surface
contact. For a brief overview of surface-to-surface contact and other types of interactions
available in Abaqus, see Understanding interactions, and About Contact Interactions.
You can define surface-to-surface
contact in any step, including the initial step. Select InteractionCreate from the main menu bar, and select the main and secondary surfaces. You can
define contact between edges of a wire or between faces of a solid or shell. Certain
connectivity restrictions apply to contact surfaces depending on the type of contact
formulation. You can deactivate a surface-to-surface contact interaction in a step and, if
desired, reactivate this interaction in a subsequent step. You can deactivate the interaction
in a step if it will no longer be needed in the analysis.
If you are creating multiple surface-to-surface contact interactions, you may want to use the
contact detection tool. This tool automates the process of selecting surfaces and allows you
to create multiple interactions simultaneously. For more information, see Using contact and constraint detection.
You can obtain contact data for a specific surface-to-surface contact interaction by using
the field and history output request editors in the Step module. In the Domain section of the editors, select
Interaction and choose the name of the surface-to-surface contact
interaction from the menu that appears. For more information, see Creating an output request.
The procedure for defining surface-to-surface contact depends on whether you are performing
an analysis using Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit. This section provides instructions for using the interaction editor to define the
different surface-to-surface contact options.