Workshop 4B

Contact with Friction

Workbench-Mechanical
Structural Nonlinearities

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS4B-1 Inventory #002660
Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

Goal
– Create contact pairs between three parts (piston,
cylinder and seal).
– Run 2 load step analysis to simulate assembly of
the three parts together. Piston
– Post Process force along axis to assembly parts. O-ring

Model Description
– 2D Axisymmetric
– Piston is constrained from movement.
– Cylinder is displaced to simulate assembly
– Materials: Cylinder
• Steel for Piston and Cylinder
• Elastomer for O-Ring
– 1st load reconciles interference between piston and
inside diameter of O-ring
– 2nd load step slides cylinder onto piston-O-ring
subassembly.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

Steps to Follow:
• If you already have Workbench open from a previous run, start a new
analysis with Utility Menu>File>New…

• Browse for and open “W4b-Oring.wbpj” project file.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

The project Schematic should look like the

picture to the right.
– Highlight the Engineering Data Cell and open by
clicking on the Right Mouse Button (RMB)=>Edit
to verify the predefined material properties
• elastomer and Structural Steel
– Verify that the units are in Metric(Tonne,mm,…)
system. If not, fix this by clicking on…
• Utility Menu=>Units=>Metric(Tonne, mm,…)

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Return to the project schematic page

• Double click (or RMB=>Edit…) on the Model Cell to open a Mechanical

Session

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Once inside the Mechanical application, verify the working unit system
– “Unit > Metric (mm,kg,N,s,mV,mA)”
• The piston-cylinder assembly is already set up as a 2D axisymmetric
model with the necessary boundary conditions and loads. It remains to
define the contact pairs between the parts, set up the solution control
analysis settings, run the solution and post process the results.
• Expand each folder in the project tree to become familiar with the model
and to confirm material assignments for each part, boundary conditions,
loads and Analysis Settings.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

Note: Auto contact detection did not create adequate contact relationships
for this model. There is only one bonded contact pair created by default and
it is insufficient for representing the assembly.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Redefine the O-ring To Piston contact region as follows:

– Revise Target definition to
include the three surfaces of
the O-ring groove as shown.

– Change Type to Frictional target

Contact
• Friction Coefficient = 0.05

– Switch to Asymmetric
behavior

– Formulation = Augmented
Lagrange

– Pinball Radius = 2mm

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Insert an additional manual contact region between O-ring and Cylinder

wall by highlighting Connections branch and RMB>Insert>Manual Contact.
Defined this new region with specifications below.

Contact

Target

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Confirm the Analysis Settings

• Note:
Large deflection is turned on:
There are two load steps with different autotime stepping specifications

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Confirm the displacement load of 10mm is applied to the

cylinder at load step 2.

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Execute the solve. After many iterations and a few bisections, the
solution converges.

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Review the Total Deformation results.

Change the contour bar to clarify the deformation of the O-ring geometry
Animate the result

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Workbench Mechanical – Structural Nonlinearities
… Workshop 4B: Contact with Friction Workshop Supplement

• Highlight Solution Branch and RMB>Insert>Contact Tool

Insert and post process contact status, pressure, frictional stress and
penetration

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 30, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS4B-14 Inventory #002660