Contact Analysis Review Checklist
Review prompts for contact modelling — formulation, stiffness, friction, penetration, convergence and contact status verification.
Purpose
For checking a contact analysis before results are accepted for engineering use.
Contact Setup
- Is contact modelled because the physics requires it (load transfer, gap opening, friction)? — Not "to be safe" on every interface
- Is the contact formulation appropriate — penalty, augmented Lagrange, or Lagrange? — Penalty for robustness, Lagrange for accuracy
- Is the finer mesh or softer material assigned as the slave surface? — Standard practice
- Are bonded or tied interfaces modelled as tied, not as frictional contact? — Avoid unnecessary nonlinearity
Contact Stiffness and Penetration
- Is penetration less than 0.1% of a typical element dimension? — If not, increase contact stiffness
- Does the contact pressure distribution show no oscillation or negative values? — Indicates mesh or formulation problem
- Has the contact stiffness been verified as not over-stiffening the interface? — Compare with and without contact
Friction
- Is the friction coefficient based on measured data for the specific material pair and surface condition? — Not a textbook default
- Has a friction sensitivity study been performed (μ ± 50%)? — If the result changes significantly, this must be reported
- If friction does not affect the result, is this documented? — Allows a single value to be used
Convergence and Verification
- Does contact status converge without chattering between open and closed? — If chattering, reduce increment or change formulation
- Does the net contact force balance the applied load in the contact normal direction? — Equilibrium check
- Are friction forces below μ × normal force at every contact node? — Physical limit
- Is the contact status at the final load physically correct — contact where expected, opening where expected? — Review contact output plot