As Engineers, we are interested to see how our multi-part design functions when various parts interact with each other. Take this really cool glasses model in Fig. 1, for example. As cool as it looks, we all know that it can easily break, when you sit on it accidentally. Well, with our General Contact feature, you can simulate this event.
What is General contact?
General contact automatically detects faces, edges, and parts in contact during a simulation run in OnScale Solve. In other words, the solver checks for all possible surfaces coming into contact during the simulation and enforces a sliding contact condition between those surfaces.
With general contact enabled, you can bypass the effort required to set up numerous contact conditions in a complex assembly, as it is automatic. Not only does this make the setup process easier, but it also reduces uncertainty in defining contact pairs, as you do not have to second guess if a pair requires a contact definition in a more complex assembly. Take this glasses model for example, there are numerous contact surfaces that are hard to pre-determine, if you attempt to setup the contact-pairs manually. So, we expedite the setup process with the feature!
Where can I enable this?
You can easily access this functionality in the Modeller Tab of OnScale Solve. Within the Global interactions setting, you can enable or disable this feature, as shown in Fig. 2.
We also prepared a brief tutorial here to help to take advantage of this feature!
For more details about General Contact, check out this blog post and happy simulations!
