Contact Interaction and Gravity

[Kamyar_K]

Hello guys, I'd really appreciate it if you answer my questions.

1- Is it necessary to have gravity load to activate contact interaction (to simulate friction) between two components?
2- What should be g (acceleration due to gravity) unit to be consistent with kips for force and inch for length? I've seen different answers to this which made me confused.

Thanks.

 

[FEA way]

It's not necessary, you could just press one component against another with force/pressure load or prescribed displacement.

I'm not familiar with imperial units but you should be really careful and make sure you are using a consistent unit system. For inches, normally force is in lbf and acceleration is in in/s^2.

 

[Kamyar_K]

If the prescribed displacement is in tangential direction, does the interaction work?

 

[FEA way]

Yes, sure. That’s how e.g. sliding wear is typically calculated.