How to Generate Rough Surfaces in Abaqus?

[Rafael March]

Hello,
in my research group we would like to evaluate how the asperities of two rough planes deform when we press them together. We would like to use Abaqus, due to its advanced contact mechanics algorithms. It is not clear to us, though, how to model rough surfaces with certain statistics in Abaqus. Anyone knows any CAD software/code that could generate these models and be easily integrated with Abaqus?
Best regards,
Rafael.

 

[FEA way]

There are two options:
- create smooth surface with very fine mesh in Abaqus and then randomly change vertical coordinate of the nodes (Edit Mesh tool will let you do this)
- prepare geometry in some external CAD software and import it to Abaqus; you can use Hypermesh for meshing because Abaqus is not very good in this aspect

Second approach is described in the article „Analysis of the contact area of smooth and rough surfaces in contact with sphere indenter using finite element method” by Kartinit et al. I think that this article may be interesting for you.