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How to connect independent meshes

Sometimes it is advisable to ''glue'' independent meshes together instead of trying to create one big seamless-mesh. Or you just want to create a contact formulation were you know that no separation will happen. In this situations you might use equations (also called mpc's) which connect one dependent node with one or more independent nodes. The independent side should be coarser than the dependent side to avoid gaps in the connection. See the command ''send in combination with the option ''areampc'' how to create such connections. Sliding and fixed contact as well as press-fits can be modelled. The necessary sets should be defined based on geometry not on the mesh. In this case the definition will be stored with the ''save'' or ''exit'' command and can be used after the next program call.

Figure 8: Dependent node on element face to create a connection