In Abaqus/Standard general contact can be defined only in the initial step, and this general contact definition is active for all subsequent steps. In Abaqus/Explicit you can define general contact in any analysis step or the initial step; only one general contact interaction can be active in a step. For a brief overview of general contact, see “Understanding interactions,” Section 15.3. For a more detailed discussion, see “Defining general contact interactions in Abaqus/Standard,” Section 36.2.1 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide, and “Defining general contact interactions in Abaqus/Explicit,” Section 36.4.1 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide.
In Abaqus/Standard a general contact definition can create interactions for all exterior faces and shell perimeter edges in the model. In Abaqus/Explicit a general contact definition can create interactions for all exterior faces, analytical rigid surfaces, shell perimeter edges, edges based on beams and trusses, and Eulerian material boundaries in the model; however, you cannot specify general contact (including self-contact) between two analytical rigid surfaces.
In Abaqus/Explicit you can obtain contact data for a specific surface in the general contact domain by using the history output request editor in the Step module. In the Domain section of the editor, select General contact surface and choose the surface from the menu that appears. For more information, see “Creating an output request,” Section 14.12.1.
To define general contact:
From the main menu bar, select Interaction
Create.
Tip:
You can also create a general contact interaction using the 
tool in the Interaction module toolbox.
In the Create Interaction dialog box that appears, do the following:
Name the interaction. For more information about naming objects, see “Using basic dialog box components,” Section 3.2.1.
Select the step in which the interaction will be created. In Abaqus/Standard general contact can be created only in the initial step.
Select the General contact (Standard) or General contact (Explicit) type of interaction, depending on the analysis steps being defined in your model.
Click Continue to close the Create Interaction dialog box.
The Edit Interaction dialog box appears.
Specify the contact domain using either of the following methods:
Choose All* with self to specify contact (including self-contact) for all allowable element faces and model entities. This is the simplest way to define the contact domain.
To specify individual contact surface pairings:
Choose Selected surface pairs, and click 
.
The Edit Included Pairs dialog box appears. By default, when you select a surface from the list or the table, Abaqus/CAE highlights the surface in the viewport; however, highlighting does not apply for (All*), (Self), and Eulerian material surfaces. You can toggle off Highlight selected regions at the bottom of the dialog box to turn off selection highlighting.
Select one or more surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the first column on the left side. Select (All*) to specify a surface that includes all allowable element faces and model entities.
Tip:
You can click 
to define a new surface and add it to the list. See “Creating surfaces,” Section 73.3.3, for instructions on defining surfaces.
Select the second surface or surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the second column to define the surface pairings.
When multiple surfaces are selected in either column, all possible combinations will be generated in the table.
To specify self-contact, select either the same surface name or (Self) in the second column.
The order in which the surfaces are specified does not matter for the analysis.
Click the arrows 
in the middle of the dialog box to transfer the surface pair to the list of pairings that will be included in the contact domain.
The table on the right side of the dialog box is updated to reflect your selections (the order of the surface pairings is irrelevant).
Repeat the above steps as needed to completely define the contact domain inclusions. If you want to delete included pairs, select the rows and click 
.
Click OK to save your selections and to close the Edit Included Pairs dialog box.
The interaction editor reappears with updated information on the number of selected surface pairs for inclusion in the contact domain.
If necessary, select the surface pairs to exclude from the contact domain.
Click Edit next to Excluded surface pairs.
The Edit Excluded Pairs dialog box appears. By default, when you select a surface from the list or the table, Abaqus/CAE highlights the surface in the viewport; however, highlighting does not apply for (All*), (Self), and Eulerian material surfaces. You can toggle off Highlight selected regions at the bottom of the dialog box to turn off selection highlighting.
Select one or more surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the first column on the left side. Select (All*) to specify a surface that includes all allowable element faces and model entities.
Tip:
You can click to define a new surface and add it to the list. See “Creating surfaces,” Section 73.3.3, for instructions on defining surfaces.
Select the second surface or surfaces from the list of existing surfaces in the second column to define the surface pairings.
When multiple surfaces are selected in either column, all possible combinations will be generated in the table.
To specify that self-contact should be excluded, select either the same surface name or (Self) in the second column.
The order in which the surfaces are specified does not matter for the analysis.
If the excluded regions overlap with the included regions, the contact exclusions will take precedence over the contact inclusions.
Click the arrows in the middle of the dialog box to transfer the surface pair to the list of pairings that will be excluded from the contact domain.
The table on the right side of the dialog box is updated to reflect your selections (the order of the surface pairings is irrelevant).
Repeat the above steps as needed to completely define the contact domain exclusions. If you want to delete excluded pairs, select the rows and click .
Click OK to save your selections and to close the Edit Excluded Pairs dialog box.
The interaction editor reappears with updated information on the number of selected surface pairs for exclusion from the contact domain.
Specify the Attribute Assignments at the bottom of the interaction editor. In Abaqus/Standard you can modify the contact properties or stabilizations in any step in which the general contact interaction is active, but all other attributes are assigned for the entire analysis. In Abaqus/Explicit you can specify or modify the attributes in any step in which the general contact interaction is active. You can specify the following assignments:
Contact Properties. For detailed instructions, see “Specifying and modifying contact property assignments for general contact,” Section 15.13.2.
Contact Initializations (Abaqus/Standard only). For detailed instructions, see “Specifying and modifying contact initialization assignments for general contact,” Section 15.13.3.
Contact Stabilizations (Abaqus/Standard only). For detailed instructions, see “Specifying and modifying contact stabilization assignments for general contact,” Section 15.13.4.
Surface Properties. For detailed instructions, see “Specifying surface property assignments for general contact,” Section 15.13.5.
Contact Formulation. For detailed instructions, see “Specifying master-slave assignments for general contact,” Section 15.13.6.
Click OK to create the interaction and to close the editor.
