Gapmin for Self-contact - RADIOSS

Neeraj Kumar

A thin plate is modelled as a shell mesh with assigned thickness. I want to give a self-contact for it. Let's say the thickness of the plate is 2mm. What should be the Gapmin?

1mm, 2mm or something else?

Thanks.

PaulAltair

My recommendation:

You should use igap = 2 (automatically use thickness of material)

The entity for self contact should be set both main and secondary

In your case, the gap would be calculated as 2mm (0.5 x main + 0.5 x secondary, and in this case they are the same component)

Then gapmin can be set low e.g. 0.5mm as it is not normally used (just needs to be set less than nominal thickness)

If your mesh is smaller than 2mm, you should also set iremgap = 2 (to prevent self penetration)

PaulAltair

My recommendation:

You should use igap = 2 (automatically use thickness of material)

The entity for self contact should be set both main and secondary

In your case, the gap would be calculated as 2mm (0.5 x main + 0.5 x secondary, and in this case they are the same component)

Then gapmin can be set low e.g. 0.5mm as it is not normally used (just needs to be set less than nominal thickness)

If your mesh is smaller than 2mm, you should also set iremgap = 2 (to prevent self penetration)