Ball-Flange Impact Using

Surface to Surface Contact Elements

1. Introduction

This example will demonstrate how to perform a ball-flange collision using surface to surface contact
elements. The model shown in Figure 1 will be used for the analysis.

Figure 1. Ball and Flange Model

2. Model Definition

2.1 Creating the Flange

Define a material by choosing Model – Material and enter the information as shown below.

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Figure 2. Isotropic Material Definition

Define a property by selecting Model – Property. Title it Flange and enter 0.125 for the thickness.
Change the workplane to the YZ-plane. Create the profile of the flange by defining the edge lines. Go to
Geometry – Curve – Line – Project Points and enter the following lines:

Line X1 Y1 Z1 X2 Y2 Z2
1 0 0 0 0 5 0
2 0 0 0 0 0 1.65
3 0 0 1.65 0 0.5 1.65
4 0 5 0 0 4.7 1.65
5 0 4.7 1.65 0 4.2 1.65

Under Mesh – Mesh Control – Size Along Curve, select the long vertical line and enter 20 elements
along length. Repeat this for the top and bottom curves with 6 elements along the length. The two small
vertical lines should have 2 elements along their length.

Select Mesh – Extrude – Curve and select the 5 curves you created earlier. When the Generation
Options dialogue box appears select the property you created earlier and enter 13 elements along the
length. When prompted for the vector to extrude along, fill in the values that correspond to the X-
direction with a depth of 3.25. Your data should appear as shown below.

Figure 3. Vector Locate

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Your model should now look like the following:

Figure 3. Flange Model

2.2 Creating the Ball

Now we need to create the ball. This will be done by first creating a line and sweeping it 180 degrees
and then sweeping the created half circle by 360 degrees. Select Tools – Workplane – Select Plane
and enter (1.625,10.5,1.2), (2.625,10.5,1.2), (1.625,11.5,1.2). This will move the workplane to the XY-
plane. Select Geometry – Curve Line – Project Points and enter (1.625,10.5,1.2) for the first point and
(2.625,10.5,1.2) for the second point. Select Mesh – Mesh Control – Size Along Curve and select the
line you just created. Choose 5 elements along length with a Geometric Bias Factor of 5 and select
Small Elements at End. Make sure everything looks like the dialogue box below:

Figure 4. Mesh Size Along Curves

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Sweep this line by going to Mesh – Revolve – Curve and select the curve you created. Enter 12
elements along length and pick the plate property you created earlier. When prompted to define the
vector to revolve around, right click on the screen and choose Snap to Point, then choose the base
point of the curve twice, but add a +1 to the Z-direction Tip. The dialogue box should look like the one
shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Vector Locate

Rotate the curve 360 degrees. Your model should now look like the following:

Figure 6. Flange and Flat Disk

Go to Mesh – Revolve – Element and box-pick all the elements in the disk. In the Generation options,
click on New Property and then on Element/Property Type and choose Solid. Name the property Ball.
Enter 6 elements along length and check the box that says Delete Original Elements. In the Vector
Locate dialogue box, again choose the center point of the disk twice, but add a +1 to the second (Tip) X
box. Rotate 180 degrees and click on Yes when prompted to delete 60 elements. Your model should
now appear like the one in Figure 7.

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Figure 7. Ball and Flange Model

2.3 Loads and Constraints

There is a body load in the Y-direction with a magnitude of –386.4 to simulate gravity. You can define
this under Model – Load, Body, and enter –386.4 in the Z box of the acceleration section. The back
panel of the flange is fixed, and the ball has symmetry boundary constraints applied.

2.4 Creating the Surface to Surface Contacts

Begin by choosing Model – Contact – Contact Property and set the Static, T1 friction value to 0.3.
Next go to Model – Contact – Segment/Surface and click on the Nodes radio button under Output.
Also select the Elements radio button under the Defined By section. Next, click on the Multiple…
button and box-pick all the elements on the ball. Then under the Face Selection for Elemental Loads
window, choose the Adjacent Faces method, change the Tolerance to 40 and click on any face on the
ball. Your window should appear like the one below.

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Figure 8. Contact Segment

Repeat the same procedure for the flange and make sure Output is set to Nodes and Defined By is set
to Elements.

Now, under Model – Contact – Contact Pair, choose the contact Property you created earlier from the
drop down list. Pick the plate as the Master and the ball as the Slave. Your window should appear like
the one below.

Figure 9. CONTACT PAIR Element Definition

3. Setting up Nonlinear Analysis Options

Under Model – Load – Nonlinear Analysis set the Solution Type to Transient, set the Number of
Time Steps to 100 and the Time Increment to 2.5E-3. Under Output Control, set Intermediate to YES
and Output Every Nth Step to 1. Your window should appear like the one in Figure 10. On the
Advanced page (click the Advanced button) enter 470 Element Damp Freq (W4), as shown below in
Figure 11.

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Figure 10. Load Set Options for Nonlinear Analysis

Figure 11. Advanced Load Set Options for Nonlinear Analysis

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4. Analyzing the Model

It is recommended that the File – Export – Analysis Model menu be used to run these types of models.
Select 12..Nonlinear Transient Response for the Analysis Type. Give the model a name in a folder
where it can be easily found.

Click the Advanced button to enter the advanced setup options, use the OK button to advance to the
next menu. In the Case Control menu select only Displacements and Element Stresses. In the Bulk
Data menu click to export using CQUADR/CTRIAR elements.

The FEMAP default for the time stepping is adaptive, which we do not want. To fix this problem simply
change the TSTEPNL card in the .NAS file. FEMAP writes that card as:

TSTEPNL 1 100 0.0025 1 +

+ +

To solve this problem, change the TSTEPNL card as follows:

TSTEPNL 1 100 0.0025 1 50 +

+ +
+ 20 0

The addition of the 0 in the ADJUST field causes NEiNastran to use a fixed time step.

The addition of the 50 in the 8th column (first row) sets maximum iterations to 50.

The addition of the 20 in the 2nd column (third row) sets the maximum number of bisections to 20.

Note: SHELLRNODE must be turned ON. This is done in the default analysis options under Geometry
Processor Parameters.

5. Viewing the Results

The results can be viewed in the normal way with the post processing menu and the contour controls.
Additionally, multi-set animations can be generated to show the motion of the ball and the response of
the flange.