Contact surface entities are used to define and store contact definitions typically used in contact analysis.  Contact surfaces are defined using elements (1D/2D/3D) and their respective facecodes.  A contact surface is displayed as an arrow on the selected element faces.  The direction of the arrow is along the element normal that defines the contact surface.  Contact surfaces are shown under the ContactSurface folder within the Model browser.

Contact surfaces have a display state, on or off, which controls the display of a contact surface in the graphics area.  The display state of a contact surface can be controlled using the icon next to the contract surface entity in the Model browser.

Contact surfaces also have an active and export state.  The active state of a contact surface controls the display state of the contact surface and the listing of the contact surface in the Model browser and any of its views.  If a contact surface entity is active, then its display state is available to be turned on or off and it is listed in the Model browser and any of its views.  If a contact surface entity is inactive, then its display state is turned off permanently and it is not listed in the Model browser or any of its views.  If a find operation "finds" an inactive contact surface entity, that contact surface entity will automatically be set to active.

The export state of a contact surface entity controls whether or not that contact surface is exported when the custom export option is utilized.  The all export option is not affected by the export state of a contact surface.  The active and export states of contact surface entities can be controlled using the Entity State browser.

 

The following panels can be used to create and edit contact surfaces:

Contactsurfs

Solver Card Support for Contact Surfaces

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See Also:

Model browser

Entity State browser

Entities & Solver Interfaces

Model Setup