Wear is the progressive loss of material from the surface of a solid body when in contact with another body. Although wear is a complex phenomenon that involves both mechanical and chemical processes, it can be approximated by models that relate various quantities at the contact surface to material loss.

In Mechanical APDL, the material loss due to wear is approximated by repositioning the contact nodes at the contact surface. The new coordinates of the nodes are determined by a wear model. The following models are available for defining wear:

Since the contact nodes are moved to new positions, the contact variables (for example, contact pressure) change, therefore simulating the effects of wear.

See Including Wear in a Contact Analysis for details on implementing these models.