Surface Contact with Initial Gap

[charsguo]

I'm working on a FEA of a climbing carabiner (oval-shaped; one side of the oval is a gate which opens and closes allowing a rope into the carabiner).

The gate of the 'biner has a hook which attaches to the "nose" of mainbody/biner.  However, this hook does not engage until the biner slightly deforms.

I've attempted to use the separation/no sliding contact option, but the solver behaves as if there is no contact occuring.  The nose simply passes right through the gate hook.

The initial gap of the system is about 0.040".  That means the nose must deflect 0.040" before the contact surface comes into play.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[JDMather]

Attach the assembly here.

[charsguo]

It's a fairly large file.  I guess what I'm asking for is what's the correct/proper method to do this?  Most likely I'm not following protocol, and the examples I've been able to find online don't specifically mention anything about a pre gap case like this.

I can do it with gap elements, but the problem is that I'll eventually have to run a non-linear analysis and gap elements are not supported there.

[henderh]

Hi charsguo,

  You can post Simulation Mechanical product questions in the dedicated forum here: Autodesk Simulation Mechanical and Multiphysics

Best regards, -Hugh