3.1.10.81. BeamContact3D Element

This command constructs a three-dimensional beam-to-surface contact element. A beam segment (nodes i-j) contacts a secondary node through a Lagrange multiplier node. Use with -ndm 3.

element BeamContact3D $eleTag $iNode $jNode $secondaryNode $lambdaNode $radius $crdTransf $matTag $tolGap $tolF <$cSwitch>

Argument	Type	Description
$eleTag	integer	unique element tag
$iNode $jNode	integer	beam end nodes
$secondaryNode	integer	secondary (contact) node
$lambdaNode	integer	Lagrange multiplier node
$radius	float	beam radius used in contact geometry
$crdTransf	integer	tag of a coordinate transformation for the beam
$matTag	integer	tag of a contact ND material
$tolGap	float	gap tolerance for contact detection
$tolF	float	force tolerance for contact equilibrium
$cSwitch	integer	optional initial contact flag

Note

A penalty variant is available as BeamContact3Dp.

Example

1. Tcl Code

element BeamContact3D 1 1 2 10 11 0.25 1 1 1.0e-6 1.0e-6

2. Python Code

element('BeamContact3D', 1, 1, 2, 10, 11, 0.25, 1, 1, 1.0e-6, 1.0e-6)

Code developed by: Kathryn Petek, Pedro Arduino, and Peter Mackenzie-Helnwein, University of Washington