Discussion Forum

Hi everyone,
I am simulating a contact model and my question is how to glue two parts together without using a thin elastic layer.
In the simulation a polymer is deformed between two plates by pressing down the top plate. As a boundary condition I want the polymer to be glued to the top plate. I can solve this correctly using a prescribed displacement in x direction or by defining a thin elastic layer between the top plate and the polymer. But this works only for areas where the plate and the polymer are in contact in the initial position.
In the geometry you can see that there is a small gap between them on the right half of the polymer. When the top plate is pressed down the polymer-regions that are not in contact can expand to the sides. When the top plate is pressed down even more, I want the polymer to be glued to the top plate in the respective positions.
When I work with a thin elastic layer, the region of the polymer that comes into contact is pulled back to its initial x-coordinate and not fixed at the x-coordinate where the parts come into contact as you can see in the second picture where the displacement in x-direction is displayed.
Is there any other way to stop the movement in x-direction when the contact-condition is fulfilled? I work with version 5.0, so I cannot use any adhesion nodes.

Thank you for your help
Marcel