Specifying general search options for contact detection

General search options indicate the range in which you want Abaqus/CAE to look for contact pair candidates. You can specify which areas of the model include contact pairs, as well as the estimated distance between surfaces that will require interaction or constraint definitions.

Related Topics
Understanding contact and constraint detection
Using contact and constraint detection

  1. From the main menu, select either InteractionFind contact pairs or ConstraintFind contact pairs.

    Tip: You can also find contact pairs using the tool in the Interaction module toolbox.

    Abaqus/CAE displays the contact detection dialog box.

  2. Display the Search Options tabbed page if it is not visible already.

  3. Specify the Search domain:

    • Select Whole model to include every instance in the current model.

    • Select Instance to include only specified part instances and child part instances. Use the following procedure to specify the instances:

      1. Click .

      2. Select the instances from the viewport (for information on selecting instances, see Selecting objects within the viewport”).

      3. After you have selected all of the desired instances, click Done in the prompt area.

    • Select Displayed entities to include only those portions of the model that are currently displayed in the viewport. You can use the assembly display options and display groups to control the display of the model. For details, see Controlling instance visibility, and Using display groups to display subsets of your model.”

  4. Enter the maximum distance between potential contact pair surfaces in the Include pairs within separation tolerance field. For tips on selecting a separation tolerance, see Choosing a separation tolerance and extension angle.

  5. By default, Abaqus/CAE extends surface definitions to any faces (for geometry) or facets (for meshed models) within 20° of the surfaces detected by the search. You can adjust this angle by changing the value in the Extend each surface found by angle field. To prevent the extension of surface definitions, toggle off Extend each surface found by angle. For further details on how Abaqus/CAE extends surfaces, see Additional criteria for defining contact pairs.

  6. By default, Abaqus/CAE creates contact pairs from surfaces located on different part instances or model instances. To search for contact pairs involving different regions on the same part instance or model instance or to search for potential self-contact interactions, toggle on Include pairs with surfaces on the same instance. For details, see Defining contact within the same instance and self-contact.