Description: You can now specify an interference fit distance or initial clearance distance for general contact in Abaqus/Standard that differs from what is implied by the mesh geometry. Strain-free adjustments of initial nodal positions are used by Abaqus/Standard to achieve the interference (overclosure) or clearance (gap) distance that you specify. The interference fit is then resolved during the first analysis step with the preexisting shrink fit method.

Figure 11–3 depicts a series of configurations for an example with a specified interference distance “h.” The specified interference distance differs from that implied by the original mesh geometry; in fact, a gap exists over part of the interface for the original mesh geometry. The second configuration in Figure 11–3 shows the effect of strain-free adjustments to create uniform overclosure corresponding to the specified interference distance. Subsequent configurations in Figure 11–3 represent resolution of the overclosure during the first analysis step with the shrink fit method.

This capability is applicable to cases in which the specified interference/clearance distance differs from that implied by the mesh geometry by less than approximately one-third of the element dimensions; mesh distortion in the configuration resulting from strain-free nodal adjustments can occur if this difference is large (see “Visualizing initial strain-free adjustments,” Section 11.5, for information on visualizing initial strain-free adjustments).