Contact detection for intersecting instances in Abaqus?

[Harry84]

Hello everybody, I am a new Abaqus user and I have the following problem to solve. I have to define contact conditions between a car rubber seal gasket and the side part of a car. The geometry I want to define contact contains two intersecting parts, as the picture shows (seal gasket and side part of the car). I have chosen the Mooney rivlin strain energy potential to simulate the rubber seal gasket. My question is, whether it is possible Abaqus, after defining the surface to surface contact between the two intersecting instances, to detect the contact area itself and move the parts properly to the contact surfaces , without having to translate the instances myself, before defining any kind of boundary conditions (e.g. displacements).

My best regards,
Harry

 

[rstupplebeen]

In your contact definition check out 'interference fit'. I hope this helps.

Thank you.

Rob Stupplebeen
OptimalDevice.com
My Personal WP

 

[Harry84]

Thanks for your reply Rob !! I made it work !!! The pre-stress of the rubber seal can also be calculated using the interference fit options. It works with "Automatic shrink fit" after specifying a damping factor during the Step-1.

My best regards,
Harry Varelis