Output from Contact Analysis

The CONTF I/O Options and Subcase Information Entry can be used to request contact results output for all nonlinear analysis subcases or individual nonlinear analysis subcases, respectively.

The NLOUT entry can be used to request incremental output from a Nonlinear Analysis. Additionally, if an NLOUT entry is specified in the model (and referenced in a subcase), then OptiStruct outputs, by default, for large displacement nonlinear analysis, the history of strain energy and contact stabilization energy to data files which can be plotted with HyperGraph. The HyperGraph main file is entitled filename_nlm.mvw and the HyperGraph data files (in ASCII format) are entitled filename_e.nlm.

Contact Shear Utilization Output

Contact shear utilization factor and shear magnitude output is available via the CONTF output request. Shear magnitude is the summation of grid shear force.

Shear Utilization factor is given by:

U = [\frac{\frac{\sum G r i d s h e a r f o r c e}{F r i c t i o n C o e f f i c i e n t}}{\sum G r i d n o r m a l F o r c e}] = \frac{\frac{S h e a r m a g n i t u d e}{μ}}{\sum F_{n}}

Shear utilization factor (U) is a quantitative measure for determining the load increment at which sliding has occurred (if any). When the utilization factor gets closer to one, sliding occurs.

Contact Scalar Integration of Contact Pressure over Surface (CICPS)

CICPS is available via the CONTF output request. It is the scalar summation of the magnitude of grid normal force.

CICPS is given by:

C I C P S = \sum \sqrt{{(F_{n x i})}^{2} + {(F_{n y i})}^{2} + {(F_{n z i})}^{2}}

CICPS and contact normal force are different when the contact surface is not flat.

Currently supported output formats:

Result Type: Comments
Shear utilization factor: It is available only in H3D and OPTI formats. In H3D format, it is output on each node. In OPTI format, it is output for each contact interface.
Shear magnitude: It is output for each contact interface and is available only in OPTI format.