Coupling constraints with shells

Hi,

there seem to be some issues with coupling constraints attached to shells (and probably also other 1D/2D elements).

  1. Kinematic couplings (*COUPLING followed by *KINEMATIC) apparently require node-based surfaces, as noted by @Disla here

  2. Surface-based distributing couplings (*COUPLING followed by *DISTRIBUTING) don’t work at all with shells, at least based on my simple test. Anyone got it working ?

  3. Element-based distributing couplings (*DISTRIBUTING COUPLING) may work with shells, as shown here.

Any comments on that? There’s also a matter of convergence issues (like the well-known ones with rigid body constraints). @dhondt mentioned *COUPLING too here. Aren’t distributing couplings (at least the element-based ones) linear, though?

1 Like