What are Contact Segments?

What are contact segments?

They are not really elements, although it is convenient to treat them as such within D3PLOT. They are 3 or 4 noded areas over which contact is calculated, and which must lie on "real" structural elements underneath.

Contact forces are calculated at nodes, and then averaged over the area of their connected segments to give contact "stress": really these value are "pressure" not "stress" (although the units are the same).

Users should be aware that contact forces in Ansys LS-DYNA are calculated from the repulsion forces required to stop nodes penetrating surfaces, and that this is an inherently noisy process since penetrations - and hence forces - tend to oscillate. Therefore contact forces on individual segments at a given state should be treated as a snapshot of a dynamic process, and not necessarily a good indication of the mean contact force averaged over a longer time period.