Abaqus/Standard Contact between Solids and Shells

[NRW1211]

Hi, I'm pretty new to Abaqus, most of my FEA experience comes from NASTRAN. Nonetheless, I'm trying to use Abaqus for its ease of use when it comes to contact solutions.

I have a complex model that contains solid to solid element contact and solid to shell element contact. So far I have the solid to solid working, but not the solid to shell.

For learning purposes, I've created a very simple model containing solid (C3D8) and shell (S4) elements. I want to contact the shell elements to the solid elements using a contact pair (both are deformable entities). I understand that TYPE = SURFACE TO SURFACE cannot do this since its 2D and 3D elements. So, I'm trying to use the default NODE TO SURFACE where my shell surface is the Master and the nodes on the top surface of the solid elements make up the Slave. I'm also using SMALL SLIDING, because otherwise shell thickness is not considered.

I must be doing something wrong here OR its not possible to do contact in this manner. If so, I'll have turn my shell to solid or create a false shell surface ontop of my solid.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[NRW1211]

Here's the sample model I've made to figure out the concept. The model converges but the two bodies just pass right through each other as if no contact exists.

 

[portliner]

You can use "SURFACE to SURFACE" because surface refers to a surface on both a shell abd a solid. Check the normal direction on the surface on the shell, should point towards the solid. The PRE-check will print out initial contact detections, master nodes not assigned any slave counterparts will be printed to the DAT-file. Use *PRE PRINT, CONTACT =YES.

/Stig

 

[NRW1211]

Thanks, the preprint showed me that my contact was set up correctly. I then realized the postprocessor was exaggerating the deformation causing the two parts to appear to intersect. In actuallity, the force I was applying wasn't enough to even cause them to contact!

I applied more force and voila! Success.