Contact Slip Drift in Thermo-Mechanical Runs

Symptom: contact pairs drift slowly even when friction should lock them.

Likely causes

• Temperature-dependent friction table missing cold-start rows.
• Initial gap mis-specified, causing repeated re-searches.
• Contact damping not scaled to thermal load ramp.

Tests to run

• Plot the friction coefficient vs. temperature history.
• Re-evaluate initial penetration tolerance.
• Apply a staged ramp to thermal load and compare slip rates.