Explicit Dynamics Chapter 7 Body Interactions

Chapter 7
Explicit Dynamics: Body

Interactions
ANSYS Explicit Dynamics
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. 1-1 Inventory #002665
Explicit Dynamics: Body Interactions
Body Interactions Training Manual
• The Body Interactions folder, under

Connections, is used to define global
connection options for Explicit Dynamics
– Contact Detection
• Trajectory (default)
– Formulation
– Shell Thickness Factor
– Tolerence
• Proximity Based
– Pinball Factor
– Timestep Safety Factor
– Limiting Timestep Velocity
– Edge On Edge Contact
– Body Self Contact
– Element Self Contact

Trajectory Contact Training Manual
• Recommended option for impact and sliding contact

between Solids, Shells and Beams.
• The trajectory of nodes and faces are tracked during
the computation cycle. If the trajectory of a node and
a face intersects during the cycle a contact event is
detected (see figure).
• Trajectory based contact does not constrain the time
step
– Often provides the most efficient solution.
• Nodes which penetrate into another element at the
start of the simulation will be ignored for contact and
should be avoided.
– To generate duplicate conforming nodes across a
contact interface
a) Use the multi-body part option in DesignModeler and set
the Shared Topology Method to either Imprint or None
b) In Meshing use Arbitrary Match Control (Sweep) or Match
mesh where possible (Patch Independent Tetrahedrons).

• Shell Thickness Factor

– The Shell Thickness Factor (STF) defines the shell (surface body) thickness used for
contact
• A factor of 1.0 takes the true physical shell thickness into account, which means that the contact
surface is positioned at half the true shell thickness on both sides of the shell mid plane.
• A factor of 0.0 means that the shell has no contact thickness and the contact surface is
positioned at the shell mid plane.
• Value must be between 0.0 and 5.0
– For shell node on shell face impacts, the node is always located at the mid-surface of
the shell.

• Formulations
– Penalty Formulation (default, recommended)
• A penalty force is calculated to push a penetrating node back to the face.
• Penalty forces are calculated to conserve linear and angular momentum.
where D is the depth of penetration

M is the effective mass of the node (N) and face (F)
Δt is the simulation time step
• Nodes will be pushed back towards the contact position, but it will usually take several cycles to satisfy the
contact condition.
– Decomposition Response
• All contacts that take place at the same point in time are first detected. The response of the system is then
calculated to conserve momentum and energy. During this process, forces are calculated to ensure that the
resulting position of nodes and faces does not result in further penetration at that time point
• The decomposition response algorithm is more impulsive (in a given cycle) than the penalty method. This
can in some situations give rise to large hourglass energies and energy errors.

Proximity Based Contact Training Manual
• Alternative option for impact and sliding contact between

Solids, Shells and Beams
• The external faces, edges and nodes of a mesh are
encapsulated by a contact detection zone. If a node enters
this zone, it is repelled using a penalty based force that
conserves linear and angular momentum
• Pinball Factor defines the size of the contact detection

zone (Gap).
– Smallest element size is multiplied by this factor to give the F
physical size of the contact detection zone. F R F
– Value must be between 0.1 to 0.5. R
– The smaller the fraction the more accurate the solution. R
R
• Initial geometry / mesh must be defined such that there is a Gap
physical gap / separation of at least the contact detection
zone size between interacting nodes and faces in the
model.
– Solver will give error messages if this criteria is not satisfied.
– May not be practical for very complex assemblies.
– Time step is constrained so that contact nodes can

travel no more than
(contact detection zone size) x (Timestep Safety Factor)
in one cycle.
• Default Timestep Safety Factor is 0.2 (strongly
recommended)
– Increasing to 0.5 (maximum value) may increase time step
and reduce runtimes, but contacts may be missed.
• Time step is computed using the maximum velocity of all

contact nodes, but limited by the Limiting Timestep
Velocity (default very large).
– Use with care or contacts may be misses

• Edge on Edge Contact

• Edge on Edge contact can be used to extend
contact detection to include edge to edge
contacts (standard detection is node to face).
– All edges of Solid, Shell and Beam elements will
be included in the contact detection.
– This option is numerically intensive and can
significantly increase runtimes.
• Compare results with and without edge contact to
make sure this option is required.

Trajectory and Proximity Based Contact Training Manual
• Body Self Contact

– By default, the contact detection algorithm will
check for external nodes of a body contacting with
faces of the same body in addition to other bodies.
• Most robust option since all possible external contacts
should be detected.
– If self impact of a body is unlikely, set Body Self

Contact = No
• Reduces the number of possible contact events
• Improve efficiency of the simulation.
• Do not use if a body is likely to fold onto itself during
the simulation e.g. during plastic buckling.

Trajectory and Proximity Based Contact Training Manual
• Element Self Contact

• This option automatically removes
(erodes) an element if it deforms
such that one of it’s nodes comes
within a tolerance of one of it’s
faces, i.e. before it becomes
degenerate or inverted.
– For Trajectory Contact a Tolerance
factor is specified
• Smallest element size is multiplied
by this factor to give the physical
tolerance.
• Value must be between 0.1 to 0.5.
– For Proximity Based Contact, the

Pinball Factor is used for the
tolerance factor

Body Interaction Objects Training Manual
• Each Body Interaction object activates a body interaction

for the bodies scoped in the object
– Four Types of Body Interaction
• Bonded
• Frictionless (contact)
• Frictional (contact)
• Reinforcement
– Contact detection is completely automated.

• Every node of the scoped bodies interacts with every face of
the scoped bodies.
• A default Frictionless interaction is scoped to all bodies

• To improve the efficiency of simulations involving large
number of bodies:
– Suppress the default Frictionless interaction
– Insert new Body Interaction objects which limit interactions

to specific bodies.
• The union of all Frictional / Frictionless body interactions
defines the matrix of possible body interactions during the
simulation.
• Example
– Body A is travelling towards body B and we
require Frictional contact to take place. A body
Interaction of type frictional scoped only to
Bodies A and B will achieve this.
– Body A will not come close to body C during the

simulation so does not need to be included in
the interaction.
– Body B is bonded to Body C. A body Interaction

of type bonded, scoped to Bodies B and C will
achieve this
– If the bond between bodies B and C breaks A bonded body interaction of can
during the simulation. We want frictional contact be applied in addition to a
to take place between bodies B and C. A body frictional / frictionless body
interaction of type frictional scoped to bodies B interaction
and C will achieve this

• Types of Body Interactions

– Frictionless (default)
• Sliding contact is frictionless.
– Frictional
• Friction Coefficient
– A non-zero value will activate Coulomb type friction between
bodies:
F = μsR
• Dynamic Coefficient, Decay Constant
– Non-zero values will activate dynamic friction where the
relative velocity (v) of sliding interfaces can influence frictional
forces: μs =
Fricti
on
Coeff
icient
μd =
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. 1-13 Dyna
Inventory #002665

– Bonded
• External nodes of bodies included in Bonded
interactions are tied to faces of bodies included in
the interaction if the nodes are within the defined
Maximum Offset distance of a face
– Solver automatically detects bonded nodes / faces
during initialization.
• Bonds can break during a simulation based on a

specified Stress Criteria.
– Effective normal and shear stresses are calculated at
each node involved in a bonded connection.
– If the following criteria is exceeded, the node will be
released from bonded contact.
All released nodes will subsequently be added to the

sliding contact detection algorithm.


– Bonded (continued)
• It is important to select an appropriate value for the

Maximum Offset. The automatic search will bond a node
which is to be tied to a face within the offset distance, the
selected face will be the closest one which is most parallel
to a face to which the tied node belongs.
• The breakable bond criteria works best when equivalent, or

similar, meshes are used on the faces at either side of the
bond.
• Bonded connections must be used with Trajectory Contact
• Bonded connections are only available for Solid and

Surface bodies
• Flexible to Rigid body bonded connections can only be

made using Body Interaction objects


– Reinforcement
• Used to apply discrete reinforcement to solid bodies
– Line body elements scoped to the object, contained within any
solid body in the model, are converted to discrete
reinforcement elements / nodes
– Elements which lie outside solid bodies remain standard beam

elements
– Reinforcing beam nodes are constrained to stay at the same
parametric location within the solid element they reside during
element deformation
• For good modeling, the size of the beam elements should
be similar or less than that of the volume elements
– If volume elements erode, reinforcing nodes tied to them

become free beam nodes
– If reinforcing beam elements erode, and inertia is retained, the

eroded nodes will remain tied to the parametric location of their
solid elements
• Typical applications involve reinforced concrete or reinforced

rubber structures likes tires and hoses
Contact Regions Training Manual
• Used to define specific face to face contact interactions

• Contact and target faces are scoped to each manual
contact region
– For shell bodies, target shell face option is not respected
for Explicit Dynamics. The nearest shell face is always
selected
• Types
– Bonded
• Bonds can be breakable
– No Separation
• not supported for Explicit Dynamics
– Frictionless
– Rough
• not supported for Explicit Dynamics
– Frictional
• Static and dynamic friction options
• Settings defined under Body Interactions are used for

Body Interaction Object and Contact Region Object
• May reduce Solve times
Spot Welds Training Manual
• Rigidly connect two discrete points to model welds, rivets, bolts

e.t.c.
– Points usually belong to two different surfaces

– Defined on the geometry (DesignModeler)
– Respected by Meshing
– Points are connected by a rigid beam element
• Can fail (break) using Breakable Stress Criteria or Force

Criteria.
Where fn and fs are normal and shear interface forces (normal force
is only non-zero for tension), Sn and Ss are the Normal and Shear
Force Limit, and n and s are the Normal and Shear Stress
Exponent (For stress criteria an Effective Diameter is used to
convert the stress limits to equivalent force limits)
• Spot welds of zero length are permitted
– Failure criteria is modified since local normal and shear directions
cannot be defined
where Δf are component force differences across the spot weld

Spot welds Training Manual
• Connecting shell points have both

translational and rotational degrees of
freedom linked
• Points on solid bodies, have additional
rigid beam elements automatically
generated to enable transfer of rotations
at the spot weld location
• Beam elements are automatically deleted
if weld fails


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Chapter 7

Explicit Dynamics: Body

ANSYS Explicit Dynamics

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• The Body Interactions folder, under

– Body Self Contact

– Element Self Contact

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Recommended option for impact and sliding contact

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Shell Thickness Factor

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

where D is the depth of penetration

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Alternative option for impact and sliding contact between

• Pinball Factor defines the size of the contact detection

– Time step is constrained so that contact nodes can

• Time step is computed using the maximum velocity of all

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Edge on Edge Contact

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Body Self Contact

– If self impact of a body is unlikely, set Body Self

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Element Self Contact

– For Proximity Based Contact, the

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Each Body Interaction object activates a body interaction

– Contact detection is completely automated.

• A default Frictionless interaction is scoped to all bodies

– Insert new Body Interaction objects which limit interactions

– Body A will not come close to body C during the

– Body B is bonded to Body C. A body Interaction

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Types of Body Interactions

• Types of Body Interactions

• Bonds can break during a simulation based on a

All released nodes will subsequently be added to the

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Types of Body Interactions

• It is important to select an appropriate value for the

• The breakable bond criteria works best when equivalent, or

• Bonded connections must be used with Trajectory Contact

• Bonded connections are only available for Solid and

• Flexible to Rigid body bonded connections can only be

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

• Types of Body Interactions

– Elements which lie outside solid bodies remain standard beam

– If volume elements erode, reinforcing nodes tied to them

– If reinforcing beam elements erode, and inertia is retained, the

• Typical applications involve reinforced concrete or reinforced

• Used to define specific face to face contact interactions

• Settings defined under Body Interactions are used for

• Rigidly connect two discrete points to model welds, rivets, bolts

– Points usually belong to two different surfaces

• Can fail (break) using Breakable Stress Criteria or Force

where Δf are component force differences across the spot weld

• Connecting shell points have both

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary February 27, 2009

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