Description: Faceted representations of curved surfaces often lead to inaccuracies in contact stresses and other types of solution noise. Circumferential and spherical smoothing methods have been available in previous releases of Abaqus/Standard to enhance robustness and solution accuracy for surface-to-surface contact formulations involving element-based surfaces. These smoothing methods introduce geometric corrections to better represent the curved shape, and they remain effective after relative motion between contact surfaces. The circumferential and spherical smoothing methods are now also available in Abaqus/Explicit for general contact. Furthermore, a toroidal smoothing method has been added for Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit; the toroidal smoothing method cannot be defined in Abaqus/CAE.

For example, in the model of the ball bearing shown in Figure 10–10, spherical smoothing can be defined on the surfaces of the balls and the retainer, and toroidal smoothing can be defined on the surfaces of the inner and outer races that contact the balls.

Interaction module:
   General contact interaction editor:
   Surface Properties: Surface smoothing assignments: Edit: 
      Select the surface, click the arrows to transfer the surface to the list of smoothing assignments.
      In the Smoothing Option column, select REVOLUTION to apply circumferential smoothing, select 
      SPHERICAL to apply spherical smoothing, or select NONE to prevent smoothing of the surface.