You can include rigid target surfaces in the general contact definition by manually meshing rigid surfaces with target elements (TARGE169 or TARGE170). Rigid target surfaces should usually be defined before the GCGEN command is used to create contact elements in the general contact definition.

These rigid target surfaces are similar to rigid targets used in a pair-based contact definition with one significant difference. In a pair-based contact definition, you assign a unique real constant ID to the rigid target elements of each rigid-to-deformable contact pair. However, in a general contact definition you assign a zero real constant ID and a unique section ID to the rigid target elements of each rigid surface.

For a solid model geometry, use the LMESH command to create 2D rigid surfaces and the AMESH command to create 3D rigid surfaces. Alternatively, you can generate the rigid target elements using direct-generation modeling techniques. In either case you need to assign a zero real constant ID (REAL,0), a zero material ID (MAT,0), an appropriate section ID (SECNUM), and an appropriate element type ID (TYPE) to the target elements.

As an example, you may choose to use an element type ID = 100 and a section ID = 101. In this case you would issue the following commands before meshing a 3D target surface:

ET,100,170,,1
TYPE,100
SECNUM,101
REAL,0
MAT,0

Before creating a target segment primitive shape (2D circle, 3D cylinder, 3D cone, or 3D sphere) via direct generation, you must specify the geometric shape via the TSHAP command and the associated radii via a section definition (SECTYPE and SECDATA commands). For example:

ET,100,170,,1               ! Target element TARGE170
TSHAP,CONE                  ! Define 3D cone
SECTYPE,101,CONTACE,RADIUS  ! Specify the RADIUS section type as section 101
SECDATA,R1,R2               ! Enter radius values for the cone
TYPE,100                    ! Set attribute pointers
SECNUM,101
REAL,0
MAT,0
E,node1,node2

You can assign only one pilot node (if needed) to each rigid target surface. The target element associated with the pilot node has the same section ID, but a zero real constant ID (as do other target elements of each rigid surface).