Contacts in Creo Simulation Live
Creo Simulation Live allows you to create contacts between surfaces within your model either manually or automatically. The way that the surfaces in contact behave (staying connected, sliding, or separating) during a simulation study is called contact behavior. Contacts can only be created for structural and modal simulation studies. You can create contacts within your model using the following methods:
Based on the value of the configuration option simlive_contact_detect_inactive, contacts are also created for all inactive studies for a model that contains contacts. The default value is “always” which means that contacts are automatically detected and defined for a model for all inactive simulation studies as well as for the active study. If the value of the option is “on study activation” then contacts are created only when a simulation study is activated.
Automatically Detect Contacts by Selecting References
The software can automatically detect contacts between two or more selected solid bodies or components that are within a specified distance from each other for the active simulation study.
To automatically detect contacts in your model for an active simulation study perform the following steps:
1. Click 
Contact > . The Auto-Detect Contacts dialog box opens.
Contact > . The Auto-Detect Contacts dialog box opens.2. Select solid components or bodies in the model. Your selections are displayed in the References collector.
3. The Tolerance box displays a default value that is automatically calculated based on the model geometry. Change this value to specify the distance within which you want to detect contacts.
Similarly, in the case of a Conjugate Heat Transfer study, change the automatically calculated value of FSI Tolerance, which is the distance within which to detect contacts at the fluid-solid interface (FSI).
 | When using very thin tubes with a very low value of thickness, contacts might be created between the fluids inside and outside the tubes. In such cases you would need to convert such contacts into “free” contacts or re-detect contacts using a lower value of tolerance. |
Click 
if you want to revert to using the default value.
if you want to revert to using the default value.4. Select one of the following options for Contact behavior:
◦ Bonded—There is no separation or sliding allowed between surfaces that are in contact. Bonded contacts have zero degrees of freedom between interfacing components and can be considered as glued together. Bonded components do not separate from each other during a simulation study.
◦ No separation—Similar to bonded contacts, separation of the components in contact is not allowed during a simulation study. However small amounts of frictionless sliding can occur along surfaces in contact.
◦ Free—In this case surfaces in contact have no effect on one another.
5. Select the Override Behavior for existing contacts check box to change the contact behavior of all existing contacts to the selected behavior. Clear the check box if you want to retain the behavior of existing contacts.
6. Click OK. Contacts that meet the specified tolerance criteria are created and appear under the contact behavior subnode of the Contacts node in the Simulation Tree.
Creating Contacts Manually
You can manually create contacts between two surfaces in your model . To create a contact manually perform the following steps:
1. Click Contact.
Contact.2. The Contact Definition dialog box opens.
3. Specify a name or use the default. Optionally, click the color swatch adjacent to the Name box to change the color of the icon, the distribution, or the text displayed.
4. Click the First reference collector and select a surface that is the first contact surface. The selected surface is displayed in the First reference collector.
5. Click the Second reference collector and select a second surface.
| | You can create contacts for the same surface by selecting the same surface in both the First reference and the Second reference collectors. |
6. Select one of the following options from the Contact behavior list:
◦ Bonded—There is no separation or sliding allowed between references that are in contact. Bonded contacts have zero degrees of freedom between interfacing components and can be considered as glued together. Bonded components do not separate from each other during a simulation study.
◦ No separation—Similar to bonded contacts, separation of the references in contact is not allowed during a simulation study. However small amounts of frictionless sliding can occur along references in contact.
◦ Free—In this case surfaces in contact have no effect on one another.
7. Click OK to define the contact.