Specifying a gasket contact area or contact width for average pressure output

When you define the thickness-direction behavior of the gasket in terms of force or force per unit length versus closure, Abaqus/Standard provides the thickness-direction force or force per unit length as output variable S11. In this case you can define either a contact width or contact area versus closure curve that will be used to obtain the average “contact” pressure at each integration point as output variable CS11.

  1. Define gasket thickness-direction behavior as described in Defining gasket behavior in the thickness direction.”

  2. From the Suboptions menu in the Edit Material dialog box, select Contact Area.

    A Suboption Editor appears.

  3. Toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define the data as a function of temperature.

    A column labeled Temp appears in the Data table.

  4. Click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables on which the data depend.

  5. In the Data table, define the contact area or contact width versus closure curve. Include temperature and field variable data if applicable. For detailed information on how to enter data, see Entering tabular data.

  6. Click OK to return to the Edit Material dialog box.