This chapter discusses features related to contact and interaction modeling. It provides an overview of the following enhancements:

• “Eulerian surfaces in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 11.1

• “Pressure penetration in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 11.2

• “General contact performance,” Section 11.3

• “General contact diagnostics,” Section 11.4

• “Visualizing initial strain-free adjustments,” Section 11.5

• “User-specified interference fit distance and user-specified initial clearance distance for general contact,” Section 11.6

• “Contact stabilization controls for general contact,” Section 11.7

• “Support for element and contact pair removal and reactivation in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 11.8

• “VCCT in Abaqus/Explicit,” Section 11.9

• “User-defined range for which contact opening output is provided,” Section 11.10

• “Smooth transition of the allowable elastic slip,” Section 11.11

• “Midface node no longer added for “serendipity” elements involved in surface-to-surface contact pairs,” Section 11.12

• “Controlling smoothness of the redistribution of contact forces upon sliding for surface-to-surface contact,” Section 11.13

• “Beam contact thickness in Abaqus/Explicit,” Section 11.14

• “Progressive viewfactor calculation,” Section 11.15

• “Display of connector section assignment tags,” Section 11.16

• “Coincident Point Builder,” Section 11.17

• “Support for position tolerance and adjustment of the slave surface initial position for cyclic symmetry interactions in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 11.18