In LS-DYNA, a contact is defined by identifying (via parts, part sets, segment sets, and/or node sets) what locations are to be checked for potential penetration of a slave node through a master segment.
In crash analysis, the deformations can be very large and predetermination of where and how contact will take place may be difficult or impossible. For this reason, the automatic contact options are recommended as these contacts are non-oriented, meaning they can detect penetration coming from either side of a shell element.
Contact treatment is internally represented by linear springs between the slave nodes and the nearest master segments. The stiffness of these springs determines the force that will be applied to the slave nodes and the master nodes.
There are numerous output files pertaining to contact which can be written by LS-DYNA. LSPOST can read these output files and plot the results.
There are several contact-related parameters in LS-DYNA that can be used to modify or, in many cases, improve contact behavior.
Crash analysis involving a full vehicle incorporates contact interactions between all free surfaces. This is quite expensive since 20-30 percent of the total calculation CPU time is used by the contact treatment.
Simulation of airbag deployment and interaction of an airbag with other components may require special contact treatment.
Most contact types do not check for edge-to-edge penetrations as the search entails only nodal penetration through a segment. This may be adequate in many cases; however, in some unique shell contact conditions, the treatment of edge-to-edge contact becomes very important.
