Description: In the Edit Interaction dialog box, there is now a field to specify an automatic smoothing factor for master surfaces, as shown in Figure 11–5. This factor controls the degree of rounding of corners or folds with discontinuous surface normals. The smoothing option is available for surface-to-surface contact and self-contact definitions in ABAQUS/Standard analyses. Another new option is available in the interaction editor to tie two surfaces together for the duration of an ABAQUS/Standard simulation. In addition, the Clearance tab now allows you to specify initial clearances or overclosures between two surfaces directly. These clearance and overclosure options are available for surface-to-surface contact definitions in ABAQUS/Standard and ABAQUS/Explicit analyses.

In the Edit Contact Property dialog box (shown in Figure 11–6), you can now include geometric properties as part of a contact property definition. The geometric properties include a definition of nodal cross-sectional area for node-based surfaces in ABAQUS/Standard and the thickness of an interfacial layer between contact surfaces in ABAQUS/Explicit.

Interaction module:
   Interaction editor: Degree of smoothing for master surface: f
   Interaction editor: toggle on Tie adjusted surfaces
   Interaction editor: Clearance
   Contact property editor: MechanicalGeometric Properties