Although documentation is installed locally with our software, we provide the latest version online also for the convenience of our users.
The current version of CONTACT is version 24.1, released June 21st, 2024.
- User guide for CONTACT, Rolling and sliding contact with friction. Technical report TR 20-01 (v24.1), Vtech CMCC, 2024.
This version provides the following extensions with respect to earlier versions of the program:
- Complete integration in Simpack Rail.
- Automatic and detailed analysis of wheel/rail contacts, using planar and conformal contact approaches, including non-steady (transient) contact analysis.
- Support for switches and crossings, with rail profiles varying in running direction.
- Support for wheel out-of-roundness, with wheel profile varying in circumferential direction.
- Providing a `fast track‘, to skip the full calculation in less demanding situations.
- Ability to compute surface temperatures and temperature-dependent friction.
- Ability to compute plastic shear of interfacial layers.
- Various smaller extensions and updates to improve robustness of the calculations.
More information is provided in the release notes for v24.1, v23.2, v23.1, v22.1, and v20.2.