Hello everyone,
I am trying to perform a multistep analysis in Abaqus/Standard, where in the first step contact is not activated and in the second step I activate certain contact pairs. My problem is that whether I use contact pairs or the general contact algorithm, Abaqus automatically includes all contact pairs in the initial contact domain, and therefore increases the computation time in all steps (even if all contact pairs are excluded). For example, I simulated the first step 1) without any contact definition, and 2) with contact defined in subsequent steps, and the 2nd methodology required substantially more computational time. I thought I could get around this with importing the initial state of the first step in a completely independent analysis of the second step, but since my model has beam elements (B31), Abaqus does not let me import the initial state of these elements.
Any ideas how I can go around this and manage to activate contact in subsequent steps, without increasing the computational time of previous ones?
Thank you.
