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Defining contact properties for general contacts (Abaqus)

In the Abaqus environment, you can use the General Contact Property modeling object to manage the properties of general contacts and assign properties to a subset of surfaces.

Defining general contact properties

The options in the General Contact Property dialog box let you:

  • Assign a mechanical surface interaction model using the Surface Interaction modeling object. The Surface Interaction modeling object, in turn, can include the Friction and Surface Behavior modeling objects.

  • Define the contact formulation to control the master-slave roles and the sliding formulation using the Contact Formulation modeling object.

Contact property assignments

You can assign contact properties to only a subset of surfaces using the Contact Property Assignment modeling object.

You use the Contact Property Assignment option on the Solution Control page of the Solution dialog box or the Solution Step dialog box for Dynamic Explicit analyses to create Contact Property Assignment modeling objects, and you use the Modeling Objects Manager dialog box to specify the modeling objects to be active in the Simulation or step.

The surfaces used to specify the regions where the contact properties should be assigned do not have to be the same surfaces used to define the general contact. In many cases, you want the contact interaction defined for a large domain, while you want the specific contact properties assigned to a subset of the domain.

Modeling objects for defining properties for general contacts

Modeling object Description Keywords
Contact Assignments Lets you assign properties to a set of surfaces. *CONTACT PROPERTY ASSIGNMENT
Contact Formulation Lets you define the contact formulation to control the master-slave roles and the sliding formulation. *CONTACT FORMULATION
General Contact Property Lets you assign non-default properties. *CONTACT PROPERTY ASSIGNMENT and *CONTACT FORMULATION
Surface Interaction Lets you define a mechanical surface interaction model to govern contact interactions. *SURFACE INTERACTION
Friction Lets you set friction properties for contact surface interactions. *FRICTION
Surface Behavior Lets you define surface behavior for non-default hard contact. *SURFACE BEHAVIOR

Associated Abaqus keywords

The options in the General Contact Property dialog box correspond to parameters for the Abaqus *CONTACT PROPERTY ASSIGNMENT, *SURFACE INTERACTION, *SURFACE BEHAVIOR, and *FRICTION keywords. For more information, see the Abaqus Keywords Reference Guide and Mechanical contact properties in the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide.

Where do I find it?

General Contact Property modeling object

Application Pre/Post
Prerequisites A Simulation file as the work part and displayed partAbaqus as the specified solver
Simulation Navigator Right-click Modeling Objects
Location in dialog box Modeling Objects Manager dialog box→Type list→General Contact Property

Contact Property Assignment modeling object

Application Pre/Post
Prerequisites An Simulation file as the work part and displayed partAbaqus as the specified solver
Simulation Navigator Right-click Modeling Objects
Location in dialog box Modeling Objects Manager dialog box→Type list→Contact Property Assignment
How do I

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Defining contact properties for general contacts (Abaqus), Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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Source: https://docs.sw.siemens.com/en-US/doc/289054037/PL20200601120302950.advanced/xid1351220 · retrieved 2026-07-17