Frictionless Support
It is a type of support used to constrained degrees of freedom in normal directions. This support or boundary condition is used to prevent one or more flat or curved faces from moving or deforming in the normal direction. If this boundary condition is applied to the face of the body then no portion of the surface body can move, rotate, or deform normal to the face, but for tangential directions, the surface body is free to move, rotate, and deform tangentially to the face.
If this support is used for a flat surface body or solid body, then it is equivalent to mirror symmetry condition. This boundary condition is available in ANSYS FEA software.
Figure1 shows the frictionless support applied to horizontal pressure vessel, where it constrains the movement in normal direction (fixed translation out of plane support).
Figure 2 shows that frictionless support is applied to the hole surface, where it constrains the surface in radial direction movement while free in tangential and axial direction.
Summary:
- The Frictionless support applies constraint in normal direction of the surface.
- The frictionless support if applied on flat solid face is equivalent to mirror symmetry condition.