Hi,
Can anyone tell me if they have used a large set of split surfaces to model numerous contact locations between parts within assemblies?
Does this speed up the no penetration contact condition by limiting the regions of contact or not?
If anybody can help, thanks!
Jon
yes that will theoretically speed up contact solutions since there are fewer surfaces on which to iterate and search for changing contact conditions. You might try it with "Low order" (or "Draft Quality") elements (initially, anyway) to get a faster turn-around in solution time and determine if the contact surfaces are behaving as expected (you could more quickly observe surface separations if they are happening- oscillations in contact surfaces 'bouncing' tends to increase solution times).
Yes it is helpful if only because you can control the mesh in those areas. And there is no point in placing contact elements on parts of a surface that have no chance of making contact.