Help With contact problem using ANSYS

iGi

Hi,
I am trying to solve a contact problem using ANSYS Workbench, In my problem i have an elastic beam with a rectangular cross section compresed against rigid frictional surface and forced to slide by apllying forces on the base of the beam (the one that is not in contact),
In the prosess the beam gets deformed (bended) and the contact area between the beam and the surface changes and as it reaches a sertain value the beam begin to slide against the surface.
I made the model in ANSYS with all the constrains but i have a problem to get the contact area of the beam with the surfase at any point in the analisys a specialy at the moment when the sliding begins.
Also i have a problem to configure the friction force in contact to be dependent not only on the friction coafitient and the normal forces but also on the contact area between the surfaces
My knowlage and experiance in ANSYS is very limited so i would apreciate if your responce would be as detailed as you can, I am a student of mechanical engineering any job offers will be apreciated
thank you for your time