PRIMER 22.1

Settings... Controlling Plots

Settings... Controlling Plots

This section controls the min and max penetration distances that will be displayed (the contour band bounds).

By default the Min value and Max value are each automatic, displaying all penetrations, but each may be defined to a +ve value.

If either value is defined you can select how the segments which fall below/above this value are (or are not) displayed: [Not Drawn, Wireframe, ...].


This section controls what is actually drawn.

Penetration vectors : (which here are not drawn) are split into:
Penetrated elements DRAWN Whether or not they are drawn
LABELS Whether they are labelled (elem id)
AS_THICK Whether contact thickness is displayed
Penetrating nodes DRAWN Whether the nodes are drawn
LABELS Whether they are labelled (node id)
DISTANCE Whether penetration distance is added

Crossed edges :
Crossed elements DRAWN Whether or not they are drawn
LABELS Whether they are labelled (elem id)
AS_THICK Whether contact thickness is displayed


This section controls the display of each side of the contact [ Not Drawn , Wireframe ...] and also the rest of the model (same options).

Plotting contact offsets from the nodal plane in shells

By default neither Ansys LS-DYNA nor PRIMER consider any offsets from a shell's nodal plane (as defined by field NLOC on *SECTION_SHELL , or explicit locations on *INTEGRATION_SHELL , or the _OFFSET suffix on *ELEMENT_SHELL ) when calculating contact penetrations. However shell offsets are considered if:

  • Field CNTCO on *CONTROL_SHELL is non-zero
    and
  • The contact surface type is not AUTOMATIC .

In this situation PRIMER applies the offset during penetration checking in the same way as Ansys LS-DYNA.

Contact penetration plots will continue to draw segments and nodes in the "nodal plane" (i.e. not offset) by default, however if you turn on the AS_THICK option then the "true thickness" outline of contact segments on shells will be drawn in the offset position. 

AS_THICK will also display automatic contact wrapping around the shell edge with a radius equal to one-half of the contact thickness.

Previous | Next