Intro to Contact Mechanics — Lesson 1

In the physical world, the way parts interact with one another depends on many factors.

We build something new...

We make progress and sometimes need to go back and make corrections...

We play sports like soccer, cricket, football and others where the ball interacts with the player...

We glide effortlessly across slippery terrain seeking adrenaline...

But what do all of these have in common?  The interaction between the parts is critical to the behavior and performance. Toy blocks, when connected as shown, don't slide and permit us to build as they are stuck together, almost bonded. The friction between the eraser and the paper is critical to the ability to erase your mistakes. The cricket ball cannot penetrate the bat, but it can bounce off it. Finally, the snowboarder glides along in a near frictionless state and does not "penetrate" the snow unless he/she catches an edge. While nature takes care of the physics, in simulation contact is not automatically accounted for. Furthermore, how we expect parts to interact is critical, and setting up the contact to capture the physics is a choice that has to be made.

In this lecture, we will introduce contact and the types of contact behavior.

Lecture

Alternate video link.

Handout

Here are the accompanying handout slides for this lesson.