Question about contact results.. 1

[victorroda]

Hi!
I need to know the contact area between two deformable solids.
How can I do that in Patran/Marc?

Thanks in advance

 

[Jordonlaw]

You could plot the contact status then go into the Select Elements menu to just display the contacted elements. You can then use Length Area & Volume Calculations to work out the contacting area. There may be better ways of course.

CHE

 

[victorroda]

Thank you very much!
Tomorrow I'll try the method that you explain.
D'you know how can I plot that info in the output file?

Thanks in advice,

Victor

 

[Jordonlaw]

If you just want to plot the contacted elements then you can use the Select Elements menu and then plot the selected items. You might want to create and run a small procedure fil eif you need to do it a plot - there isn't a direct way as far as I know.

CHE

 

[victorroda]

Thanks!
I've done a report with the magnitudes of the contact normal force, so I can processe with matlab these results and obtain the searched data.

By the way, d'you know what doest it means de 3rd field of the 2nd data block of the contact option, in the *.dat file?