Abaqus Tutorial 27 Rubber Seal

Tutorial Number 27: Rubber Seal:
Self Contact and Tie Constraints.
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1. Introduction
The second exercise of this contact event will show you the capability of Abaqus
to solve for contact where an instance gets in contact with itself.
This highly non-linear event is solved by defining a self-contact interaction.
General contact automatically already includes this kind of interactions in the ‘All
with self’ contact domain default option so we are going to use the contact pair
approach in this tutorial.
In this example, a rubber seal modelled with a hyperelastic material will undergo
an axial compression loading condition enforced through tie constraints with
rigid analytical surface. This kinematic constrain is very useful to simulate contact
conditions where no movement is allowed between two contacting instances.
The model will be already pre-defined in terms of geometry, meshing and

material properties. Your only task will be to define the interactions, tie
constraints, run the analyses and post-process the data.
2. Preliminaries
- Double click on the file tutorial27.cae, this will open an Abaqus database
where you will already find a model called Model-SEAL including the geometric
parts, the instance positioning in the assembly and the discretization of the parts.
- The model (Figure 1) is a 2D axisymmetric assembly composed of the rubber

seal and two rigid analytical wires.
Figure 1. Assembly of the rubber seal.
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3. Material and section properties
- Check the definition of the hyperelastic material called Rubber. A Mooney-
Rivlin strain energy density function (SEDF) has been used in this case.
Standard SEDF coefficients have been used. Notice that a Section called
Section-Rubber has been created as well and assigned to the Rubber Part.
- Double click Assembly in the model tree, click on the View Mesh Icon to check
the assembly and its already predefined mesh created with all quadrilateral
elements.
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4. Define the analysis step
- Double-click on Steps in the model tree and create a new Static, General step
called AxialDisplacement. Set Nlgeom parameter as on and enter 0.05 as initial
and maximum increment size in the Incrementation tab of the Edit Step dialog
box.
5. Define boundary and loading conditions

Two boundary conditions are applied to this model.
- Create now a new Boundary condition called BC-Encastre to encastre the

lower rigid tool. Select Initial as step and Symmetry/Antisymmetry/Encastre as
type. Select the reference point of the lower wire as region (see figure) and then
ENCASTRE as type. All the nodes of this rigid part will follow the movement of
the reference node, thus the whole part will be fixed to its initial position.
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- Create a Displacement/Rotation boundary condition called BC-DISP. Select
AxialDisplacement as step, Displacement/Rotation as type, select the reference
point of the upper wire and enter the parameters as shown in the following
picture.
- Save the model. File → Save.
6. Define Interactions using Contact Pairs approach

- Create a new Interaction Property by double-clicking Interaction Properties in
the model tree, call it IntProp-1 and select Contact as Type. Select Hard contact
for Mechanical→ Normal Behaviour.
- Create now a new Self-Contact interaction. Double click on Interactions, select

Initial as Step, call the new interaction as INT-SELF and choose Self-Contact as
type. Select the lateral surfaces of the rubber as domain (click and drag the
rectangular box, see Fig.). Select IntProp-1 as global interaction property. Click
OK.
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7. Define Tie Constraints
Define two new Tie Constraints to model the kinematic coupling between the
rubber and the two wires where no relative movement is allowed between the
instances.
- In the Model tree, double-click Constraints, select Tie as Type and name the
Constraint as Constraint-Up. Select Surface as master type, the upper wire as
master surface and choose the colour of the shell side facing the rubber (yellow
or magenta arrows). Select Surface as Slave type and click on Surfaces button in
the bottom bar to directly select the predefined surface called Surf-TIE-UP as
slave surface. Click Continue, then click OK.
- Repeat the same process to create the Tie constraint between the lower wire
and the predefined surface called Surf-TIE-DOWN. Name the constraint as
Constraint-Down.
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8. Create and Submit a Job
- Double-click Jobs in the model tree and create a new Job called Contact2-
SELF-TIE, click Continue and then ok. Now, right-click on Jobs and open the
Job-Manager. Highlight the job Contact2-SELF-TIE previously created and click
on Submit to start your analysis and on Monitor to monitor the advancement of
the analysis. Once it is terminated click on Results.
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9. View the Results
- Visualize the displacement and the stress contour plots on the 2D geometry.
- Visualize the complete model. In the main menu bar, click on View → Odb
Display options and enter the Sweep/Extrude tab. Tick the Sweep Elements and
Sweep analytical rigid surfaces options. In both cases, sweep from 0 to 90
degrees and enter 20 as number of segments Click OK.
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Tutorial Number 27: Rubber Seal:

Self Contact and Tie Constraints.

The model will be already pre-defined in terms of geometry, meshing and

- The model (Figure 1) is a 2D axisymmetric assembly composed of the rubber

Figure 1. Assembly of the rubber seal.

5. Define boundary and loading conditions

- Create now a new Boundary condition called BC-Encastre to encastre the

- Save the model. File → Save.

6. Define Interactions using Contact Pairs approach

- Create now a new Self-Contact interaction. Double click on Interactions, select

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