Coincident entities contact set - entities too far apart?!

[jharr11]

Hi all,

Using SW2011 SP0.0. I am trying to create a contact set between a beam and a solid. The entities are coincident yet I get the error message "Distance between contact entities is too far". I get the message no matter which beam or solid in the assembly I attempt to create a contact set for. Any insight? I don't have much general FEA experience, but I do know SW FEA pretty well, and nothing I've tried has worked. This makes no sense to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-J

 

[kellnerp]

Is there anything in the documentation that tells you you can do this?

A BEAM is a 2D element. It has 6 dof per node. A solid is a 3D element and has 3 dof per node.

What you are asking the software to do is figure out where a 2D element who's cross section properties are distilled into things like moment of inertia and area to somehow determine where that beam is actually going to contact the 3D element. There is no way the software can know the contact area where the beam would touch the solid.

If you need the beam to contact the solid, model the beam in that area and constrain it to the 2D beam where contact is not a possibility.

TOP
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