Contact sticky

DaveStupple

Just trying out some experiments to try to understand contact/bonded contact. In the attached I have two boxes separated by a distance, with a contact condition on the facing faces. One box approaches the other until contact is made, then pushes the box a short distance before withdrawing back in the opposite direction. The pushed box unexpectedly travels back with the pushing box (which is now a pulling box) as if the contact faces are stuck together. I would expect the pushed box to stay put when the other box withdraws. In the attached, the box sticks to the other as it withdraws and goes past its original position. I tried introducing a floor with friction in the contact with the box bases; with this, the box returns to its original position then disengages with the pushing box, which continues moving alone.

The purpose of all this is to work out how to switch on a bonded contact at a certain time. First I need a contact that will 'let go' if not superseded by a bonded contact. Any ideas?

Victor

The box that's initially stationary has 3 unconstrained degrees of freedom making it free to slide around however it wants in the XZ plane. It requires 0 force to do that, so it can easily be moved by anything.

Adding a floor object with friction should solve it. Did you also include a normal force to allow the friction force to be non-zero?