Maybe you just using a wrong software, incapable of performing contact stress analysis.
Some time ago I have had a similar problem in calculating contact (Hertz) stress in Algor. It simply did not support contact stress calculations.
Ansys, on the other hand gave me good correlation between FEA...
Acerero,
I didn’t see it myself, but they describe it as a pit hole – damage caused by the arc strike in the area closest to the electrode and possibly through the contact with the scrap. This problem is quite common here. It even reflected in the name of the panel: so called “sacrificial panel”...
Just recently stumbled across your DC EAF arcing question.
Did you succeed in fixing arcing problem on the roof? Our customer (DC EAF) not long ago has damaged a roof panel supplied by us just after 4 days of operation.
Appreciate your help.
SR