I have a hollow pipe which is clamped by 2 c-clamps, both are of different materials. I am doing a contact analysis in ANSYS workbench. However the solution is not converging. Can I merge the nodes of the two bodies instead? Will this give the same result or different?
Hi,
what are you exactly trying to model? Is the contact behavior (opening, sliding, etc.) central to the problem or can the clamps be regarded always fixed to the pipe? Simplify, if possible (e.g. by merging nodes, as you suggest).
Regards
The clamps are not fixed to the pipe. I want to check whether the pipe slips or not from between the clamps if sufficient pressure is not applied.
So you may have sliding but no separation, which simplifies contact analysis. See "contact behavior" in the contact analysis guide (e.g. keyoption 12 for CONTA171 element). You may also adjust the contact surface, close gaps, etc., to enhance convergence, using the element keyoptions or paramters. Go through the contact analysis guide.
Regards
But can I merge the node of the two bodies? What difference will it make from the bonded contact case (as I was previously using bonded type contact between the two bodies.)?
"bonded" contact behavior means that contact surfaces are tied together in all directions once contact is established. Before contact, the surfaces do not interact. I think this is not the case here. Maybe KEYOPT(12) = 2 or 4 (no separation, sliding permitted) better fits to your problem. You may also try multipoint constraints (MPC) which do not require contact iterations.
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