// Analyze multi-body contact. Use when user mentions parts touching, friction between surfaces, bolt-plate contact, press fit, or assembly with contact.
Complete workflow for coupled thermomechanical analysis. Use when user mentions thermal stress, thermal expansion, or temperature causing deformation.
Complete workflow for dynamic analysis. Use when user mentions impact, crash, drop test, transient, or time-varying response. Handles explicit and implicit dynamics.
Workflow for fatigue and durability analysis - cycle counting, damage accumulation, and fatigue life prediction.
Complete workflow for modal/frequency analysis - extract natural frequencies and mode shapes. Use for vibration analysis and resonance avoidance.
Complete workflow for static structural analysis. Use when analyzing stress, displacement, or reaction forces under constant loads. For strength and stiffness evaluation.
Complete workflow for heat transfer analysis - steady-state and transient thermal. Use when user asks about temperature distribution, conduction, convection, or heat flow.
| name | abaqus-contact-analysis |
| description | Analyze multi-body contact. Use when user mentions parts touching, friction between surfaces, bolt-plate contact, press fit, or assembly with contact. |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Write","Edit","Glob","Grep","Bash(abaqus:*)","Skill"] |
This skill guides multi-body contact analysis setup. It's a workflow skill - use it when analyzing assemblies where surfaces touch, slide, or separate.
Route here when user mentions:
Route elsewhere:
/abaqus-static-analysis/abaqus-interaction/abaqus-bcBefore contact analysis setup:
Ask the user:
| Role | Should Be |
|---|---|
| Master | Stiffer material, coarser mesh |
| Slave | Softer material, finer mesh |
Rule: Slave surface nodes cannot penetrate master surface.
| Scenario | Approach |
|---|---|
| Permanently bonded surfaces | Tie constraint (no slip/separation) |
| Sliding with friction | Surface-to-surface contact |
| Frictionless contact | Surface-to-surface, no tangential |
| Many bodies touching | General contact (auto detection) |
| Surface folding on itself | Self-contact |
Configure normal behavior:
Configure tangential behavior (if not tied):
| Interface | Typical Value |
|---|---|
| Frictionless | 0.0 |
| Lubricated steel | 0.1-0.2 |
| Dry steel-on-steel | 0.3-0.5 |
| Rubber on metal | 0.5-0.8 |
Ask user if unsure about their specific interface.
Contact analysis typically requires:
Essential output variables:
| User Need | Configuration |
|---|---|
| Bonded joint (welded, glued) | Tie constraint |
| Bolted connection | Friction contact + preload |
| Press fit | Interference + friction |
| Bearing load | Frictionless or low friction |
| Impact/crash | Explicit dynamics + general contact |
After setup, verify:
| Problem | Likely Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| "Severe discontinuity" | Contact chattering | Add stabilization, smaller increments |
| "Too much penetration" | Wrong master/slave | Swap roles, refine slave mesh |
| "Contact not detected" | Surfaces too far apart | Use adjust=ON or reduce gap |
| "Convergence failure" | Difficult nonlinearity | Smaller increments, check friction |
For API syntax and code examples, see:
/abaqus-interaction - Contact property details/abaqus-bc - Boundary conditions/abaqus-step - Nonlinear step settings/abaqus-dynamic-analysis - For impact problems