Structural Contact

---

​

About this Block

What it does: The Structural Contact creates a bonded contact between two boundaries, allowing mechanical load transfer between the two domains. Common uses:

• To allow elastic connection between two boundaries with user-defined stiffness. Enables connections such as welded/glued surfaces, elastic joints, etc.

Tips:

• Unlike a Tie Constraint, which is a rigid connection between boundary entities, bonded contact allows relative motion between the selected entities through an elastic connection
• Bonded contact acts as a spring with contact stiffness attached between independent and dependent boundary entities. The contact resistance between two materials is often recommended to be the average of their Young’s modulus. Another method of determining the contact stiffness is k = E * A/d (where A is the contact area and d is the contact layer thickness).
• If two domains are bonded, no sliding or separation between components is allowed. It is assumed that they are glued together.
• If no nodes are selected on the default tolerance value, slightly increase the tolerance to increase the region.

​

Example File

Download Example: Structural Bonded Contact

---

​

Boundary, Boundary, Scalar, Contact Type Enum, Scalar Field, 1.1.0

Creates a bonded or no separation contact type between two Boundaries and allows mechanical loads to be transferred between two Domains.

​

Inputs

​

Outputs

---

​

Boundary, Boundary, Scalar Field, Scalar

Creates a bonded contact between two Boundaries which allows for mechanical load transference between the two Domains. A contact stiffness value of one half of the sum of the Young’s modulus for both materials is recommended for most applications.

​

Inputs

​

Outputs

---

​

CAD Face, CAD Face, Scalar, Contact Type Enum, Scalar Field, 1.1.0

Creates a bonded or no separation contact type between CAD Faces and allows mechanical loads to be transferred between two Domains.

​

Inputs

​

Outputs

---

​

CAD Face, CAD Face, Scalar Field, Scalar

Creates a bonded contact between CAD faces which allows for mechanical load transference between the two Domains. A contact stiffness value of one half of the sum of the Young’s modulus for both materials is recommended for most applications.

​

Inputs

​

Outputs