Abaqus/Standard offers two contact discretization methods: a traditional node-to-surface method and a
surface-to-surface method. The node-to-surface discretization method defines contact
conditions between each secondary node and the main surface. The surface-to-surface
discretization method considers the shape of both the main and secondary surfaces when
defining the contact constraints. The contact pair algorithm can use either discretization
method; general contact uses only the surface-to-surface approach.