Hello Simulia Community,

I am working on a simulation of a tripod joint in Abaqus Explicit, where I have applied a rotational velocity to one of the shafts. The challenge I am facing is to restrict the movement of the rollers along their respective axes (Z-axis).

To achieve this, I created local coordinate systems aligned with the axes of all three rollers and applied boundary conditions to restrict their motion along the Z-axis. However, after applying these boundary conditions, the rotational motion of the tripod joint is not happening. On the other hand, if I remove the boundary conditions, the tripod joint rotates as expected, but the rollers slide along their axes, which is not desired.

I have tried my best to illustrate the problem using the attached image to provide clarity. Despite my efforts, I am unable to identify the root cause of this issue.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem or have insights into what might be causing this behavior? Any suggestions or solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Manish Kumar