Contact elements in Ansys 11

[Sjoonus]

Hi,

I'm having problems applying contact elements in Ansys 11. I try to model a crane on a (shaking) ground. I want to use contact elements (with friction) to model possible uplift of the crane legs.

Which elements are best to use in Anys 11? I tried to use Contact12, 52 and 178, but I do not seem to create them well. Can someone give me clear examples on how to apply these elements?

I use lines to create Beam188 elements (with prescribed sec.data) for the legs and I want to create just nodes (or a plane) to represent the ground. How can I couple these nodes of the legs to the ground with contact elements?

Thank you very much (I am trying for a week now...)

 

[TheColumnBase]

why dont you use the ansys 11 workbench ?
it models contact elements very easily.
I used it to model my base-plate connection although I still have some problems.