Select the step in which the interaction will be created.
Select the Surface-to-surface contact
(Explicit) type of interaction.
Click Continue to close the Create
Interaction dialog box.
Use one of the following methods to select the main surface:
Use an existing surface to define the region. On the right side of
the prompt area, click Surfaces. Select an
existing surface from the Region Selection
dialog box that appears, and click Continue.
Note:
The default selection method is based on the selection method
you most recently employed. To revert to the other method,
click Select in Viewport or
Surfaces on the right side of the
prompt area.
Use the mouse to select a region in the viewport. (For more
information, see Selecting objects within the current viewport.)
Click mouse button 2 to indicate you have finished selecting.
Certain connectivity restrictions apply to contact surfaces
depending on the type of contact formulation. For detailed
information, see About Contact Pairs in Abaqus/Explicit.
If the model contains a combination of mesh and geometry, click one
of the following from the prompt area:
Click Geometry if you want to select
the surface from a geometry region.
Click Mesh if you want to select the
surface from a native or orphan mesh selection.
The main surface that you select becomes highlighted in red in the viewport.
Select the secondary surface.
In the prompt area, select one of the following:
Select Surface if you want to select a
surface.
Select Node Region if you want to select
a region from which to create a contact node set.
Use one of the same methods described earlier to select the secondary
surface or region.
The secondary surface or region that you select becomes highlighted in
magenta in the viewport.
The Edit Interaction dialog box appears.
The Switch Surfaces option allows you to interchange your
main and secondary surface selections without having to start over. The
Switch Surfaces
icon is available
only if you selected Surface in the previous step.
Choose the mechanical constraint formulation.
Choose Kinematic contact method to use a
kinematic predictor/corrector contact algorithm.
Choose Penalty contact method to use the
penalty contact algorithm.
Choose Finite sliding to use the
finite-sliding formulation, which is the most general and allows any arbitrary
motion of the surfaces.
Choose Small sliding to use the small-sliding
formulation, which assumes that although two bodies may undergo large motions,
there will be relatively little sliding of one surface along the other.
The small-sliding formulation can be specified for interactions
created in only the initial step or the first general analysis step.
Interactions created in subsequent steps always use the finite-sliding
formulation by default. For more information, see
Contact Formulations for Contact Pairs in Abaqus/Explicit.
For contact interactions using the Small sliding
formulation, you can specify an initial clearance between the nodes on the
secondary surface and the main surface. Clearance options are available only in
the first general analysis step. Select a clearance type from the
Initial clearance field, and enter all of the data
necessary to define the clearance and contact direction. For more information,
see Specifying Initial Clearance Values Precisely.
Select a contact interaction property. If desired, click
to create the interaction property; see
Defining a contact interaction property,
for more information.
If desired, click the arrow next to the Contact
controls field and select the customized contact controls to use for
this interaction. Only previously created
Abaqus/Explicit
contact controls appear in the list. For more information, see
Specifying contact controls in an Abaqus/Explicit analysis.
To deactivate and reactivate a contact interaction in a step, toggle
Active in this step. The contact interaction is active in
the step in which it was created.
Click OK to create the interaction and to close
the editor.