Setting Mechanical Contact Stiffness and Thermal Contact Conductivity Values in Ansys Workbench using Command Snippets

For a bonded contact, which is the default for models opened in Ansys Workbench Mechanical, the contacts are modeled using elements TARGE170 and CONTA174. The thermal conductivity and stiffness of the contact elements are calculated by Ansys based on the properties of the two bodies. The controls only allow one to change the contact stiffness factor FKN which is a multiplier but not the actual stiffness of the joint (ie with SI units of N/m/m^2). However if one would like to set the value of the contact stiffness or thermal contact resistance, it can be done using Command snippets (also known as the Commands Object) for each contact. Continue reading Setting Mechanical Contact Stiffness and Thermal Contact Conductivity Values in Ansys Workbench using Command Snippets