The first step in defining contact pairs (and optionally general
contact) in
Abaqus/Standard
is to define the surfaces of the bodies that could potentially come into
contact.
The next step is to specify the surfaces that interact with each
other; these are the contact interactions. The final step is to define the
mechanical property models that govern the behavior of the surfaces when they
are in contact.
The definition of surfaces is optional for general contact since an
all-inclusive element-based surface is automatically created when general
contact is used. You can use specific surface pairings to include regions not
included in the default surface, to preclude interactions between different
regions of a model, or to override global contact property assignments. For
example, if you want to apply a certain friction coefficient to all but a few
surfaces in your model, you can assign the primary friction coefficient
globally and then override this property for a given pair of user-defined
surfaces.