Contact issue with OS

Costas
Costas Altair Community Member
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

Hi guys, 

 

I've encountered the following problem with Optistruct. 

 

I've defined a Freeze contact (the slave is a SETGRID, the master a SETELEM[shell elements]) with a search distance equal to 8. Nevertheless, when I import the *contgap.fem file, I see some gap elements longer than 8 (specifically 14-15 mm). The thickness of the shell (master) is just 1 mm, so the problem doesn't lie in the fact that also the shell thickness is taken into account.

 

Anyone who has encountered the same problem?

 

I hope I was clear enough.

 

Thank you in advance

Answers

  • Rahul Rajan_21763
    Rahul Rajan_21763 New Altair Community Member
    edited June 2019

    Could you please share .out file of the run?

  • Costas
    Costas Altair Community Member
    edited June 2019

    Unfortunately, I can’t right now. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that there is nothing strange in the out file, 

  • Rahul Rajan_21763
    Rahul Rajan_21763 New Altair Community Member
    edited June 2019

    Do you see any warning or error message in out file. Out files helps the user to understand information the solver is parsing, manipulating, and solving.

  • Costas
    Costas Altair Community Member
    edited June 2019

    No, no warnings or other informations. In the next days i will share the .out file. Thank you 

  • Costas
    Costas Altair Community Member
    edited June 2019

    I found out that

    1) the search distance between the slave node and the master shell element does take into account the real thickness of the shell. BUT

    2) if the master set includes many properties (for example 1 mm thick shell and 5 mm thick shell) the contact is established considering ONLY the maximum thickness. Hence, even if the slave node is projected on the 1 mm thick shell, the search distance will work as if the thickness of the shell is actually 5 mm.