ABAQUS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
WARANGAL 506004

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 Abaqus FEA
• Abaqus/CAE

– Complete Abaqus Environment

for modeling, managing, and monitoring Abaqus analyses, as
well as visualizing results.

– Based on the Design concepts of parts and assemblies of part

instances, which are common to many CAD systems.

– Parts can be created within Abaqus/CAE or imported from

other systems as geometry (to be meshed in Abaqus/CAE) or
as meshes.

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 Primary Features of Abaqus/CAE
Part Property Assembly
• Create the • Define materials • Position parts for
part geometry (and initial configuration.
• Define additional
regions for Assembly is created
part regions
sections, if automatically for
necessary) • Define and models with only
assign sections one part
to parts or
regions

Step Interaction Load

• Define analysis steps • Define contact and • Apply loads,
and output requests other interactions BCs, and fields to
on regions or regions or
named sets, and named sets; and
assign them to assign them to
steps in the steps in the
analysis history analysis history

Mesh Job Visualization

• Split • Submit, manage, • Examine results

assembly into and monitor
meshable analysis jobs
regions and
mesh

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 Primary Features of Abaqus/CAE

• Model Tree and the Results Tree

– The Model Tree provides you with a graphical overview of

your model and the objects that it contains.

– The Results Tree is used to display analysis results from

output databases as well as session-specific data such as X–
Y plots.

– Both trees provide shortcuts to much of the functionality of

the main menu bar, the module toolboxes, and the various
managers.

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 Features of Abaqus/CAE
• Feature-based and parametric
– A feature is a meaningful piece of the design. Models solid extrusion cut
are constructed from numerous features; for
example:

– Geometric features
– Solid extrusion, wire, cut, fillet, etc.
fillet
– Assembly features
– Wheel must be concentric with the axle, the
blank lies exactly in contact with the rigid die,
etc.

– Mesh features Part with several

– Partition the mesh into different regions for annotated features
different meshing techniques, seed different
edges with different mesh densities, etc.

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 Primary Features of Abaqus/CAE
– Features can be modified by editing their parameters.
• Aspects of the model can be regenerated.
• Parametric studies are easy and natural.

– Features can also be deleted or temporarily suppressed with the

option to resume them later.
• If a parent feature is deleted or suppressed, all its child features
are also deleted or suppressed.

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 Primary Features of Abaqus/CAE
– A parameter is a modifiable quantity that provides additional information
for a feature; for example:
– Solid extrusion parameters
– Sketch of extrusion cross-section, depth of extrusion.
– Cut
– Sketch of cut cross-section, depth of cut.
– Fillet parameter
– Fillet radius.

sketch of
extrusion
cross-section

extrusion
depth

8 Solid extrusion parameters

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 Directory:
• Selecting a working directory
– Can select a working directory
• Default is startup directory
– Subsequent file operations will use this
directory for reading/writing
– Job files will be written to the new working
directory
• Job files will not pollute startup directory
– Makes it easier to manage multiple jobs from a
single model (keep all files in a per-job
directory)

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 Abaqus/CAE Documentation
• Abaqus/CAE User’s Manual

– Reference guide to using Abaqus/CAE.

– This manual is integrated with the documentation for the analysis
programs.
– Available only online.

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 Building a Part Using the Part Module Tools
1. Select the appropriate dimensionality and part type
– Can be changed later.
2. Select the type of base feature—cannot be changed once
selected.
– The first feature you create while building a part is called
the base feature.

3. Define any additional features to either

modify or add details to the base feature.

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 Basic drawing tools

Underconstrained (Yellow)
Multiple solutions on edit
Fully constrained (Green)
Unique solution on edit
Over-defined (Purple)
Possibly no solution
Delete extra constraints or
dimensions, or edit a dimension
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 Sets and Surfaces
– Sets define regions from one or more parts or part instances for:
• Loads and boundary conditions
• Generating output during the analysis

– Surfaces define regions from one or more part or part instances for
specifying:
• Contact
• Distributed loads

– Sets and surfaces are useful when certain geometric groups will be used for
multiple purposes.
– Note: Often it is more convenient to select geometric entities directly using
the mouse when defining loads, boundary conditions, and fields rather than
using sets and surfaces. One advantage of sets is that you provide names that
will be meaningful for results visualization.
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 Assembly
 Each part distinct geometric entity that can be modified and manipulated independently of
other parts.

 Each part exists in its own coordinate system and has no knowledge of other parts .
 An instance always maintains its association with the original part and You can instance a
part many times and assemble multiple instances of the same part.

 Each instance of the part is associated with the section properties assigned to the part in the
Property module
 An assembly contains all the geometry included in the finite element model and each
Abaqus/CAE model contains a single assembly.

 An assembly is empty initially even if you have created some parts and an assembly does not
contain parts directly; instead, it contains “instances” of parts.

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 Steps
• Defining steps in Abaqus/CAE

General procedures Linear procedures

Abaqus/Explicit
procedures

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Steps
Output can be restricted to
specific regions of the model.

Specify output requests:

The frequency at which

output is written can be
controlled.

Preselected output includes the most

commonly used output variables for a given
analysis procedure.

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 Interactions and constraints
1. Create an interaction, and select the steps in which it
will be active.
2. Select the application surfaces from geometric surfaces,
element faces, surface sets, or node sets.

Create Interaction dialog box

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• Use the Interaction Manager to activate/deactivate the contact
interactions as necessary.

 Constraints and interactions can be suppressed/resumed

 Allows what-if studies using combinations of constraints and interactions

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 Mesh
 Approximation of the geometry of the physical part model.
 Discretized geometry including many geometrically simple nodes and
elements.
 Necessary for the finite element analysis program to perform a simulation.
 Defined by attributes that are features of the assembly.
General capabilities of the Mesh module

Allows you to mesh an assembly using various levels of automation and controls to suit
the needs of your analysis

 Assign mesh attributes and set mesh controls to specify

Meshing technique
Element shape
Element type
Mesh density
 Generate the mesh
 Query and verify the mesh for
Number of nodes and elements
Element type
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 Part geometry Nodes Elements
• Free meshing

 Free meshing uses no pre-established mesh patterns, making it impossible

to predict a free mesh pattern before creating the mesh.
 Element shape options available for free meshing two-dimensional regions:

Quadrilateral (default) Can be applied to any planar or curved surface.

Quadrilateral-dominated Allows some triangular elements for transition.
Triangular Can be applied to any planar or

 Element shape option available for free meshing three dimensional regions at
curved surface.

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 Abaqus/CAE automatically determines meshability for each region based on its geometry and mesh
controls. Regions are color coded to indicate their currently assigned meshing technique and element
shape option available for free meshing three-dimensional regions.

Tetrahedral—any geometry can be meshed with tetrahedral elements unless the mesh seeds are too
coarse

cannot be meshed
using current
mesh technique

Quadrilateral structured-
mesh Tetrahedral mesh meshing
technique

quad-dominated triangular
mesh mesh
free-meshing swept-meshing
technique technique

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 Building a Part Using the Part Module Tools
• Complex three-dimensional shapes

– A twist option is supported for the extrude and revolve

capabilities to create geometries such as threads,
Screws.
– A draft option is supported for extrusion to create parts
that have included draft angles.
– All sketch-based features are defined through a
consistent GUI.

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• Amplitude definitions
Prescribed loads and boundary conditions can also vary with a user-defined time-
dependent amplitude definition.

Amplitude definition may be

relative to either step or total time.

Create and Edit Amplitude

dialog boxes

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• Predefined Fields
• Initial conditions
Mechanical Thermal
Translational and rotational Temperatures
velocities

 Initial conditions fall under the more general heading of “Predefined Fields.”
 Predefined fields that are defined in the Initial step are by definition initial
conditions.

An initial translational velocity can simulate

the effect of free fall in a drop test.
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 Job Management
• Monitor solution progress
– Current status of each job (running, completed, aborted, etc.),
including incrementation history.
– Job output (log, errors, warnings, output).
• Element and node sets are created automatically for regions causing current
warnings and errors. job status
• These sets can be used in the Visualization module to help with
debugging the model.

• Create and configure analysis jobs

– Job type
– Run mode (including queues – Memory allocation
on remote machines) – Parallelization options
– Submit time – Abaqus/Explicit
– Preprocessor printout precision
– Scratch directory – Nodal output precision
– User subroutine file (.odb file) job
output
– Number of CPUs
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 Results Visualization

Types of plots (plot states)

• Model plots Un-deformed shape

Deformed shape

• Results plots Contour field data

Tick mark plots required

Symbol
Material orientations

• X–Y plots Results versus analysis time

Spatial variation (path plot) field or history data
Operate on results required

Visualization tools

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 Abaqus input file

– A means of communication between Abaqus/CAE and the analysis products

Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit.
• When a job is submitted for analysis, the input is created behind the
scenes and read by the batch solver products.
– A means of communication between Abaqus/CAE and other third-party
modeling packages.

• Can import partial or complete models into Abaqus/CAE via the input file.
– Allows easy use of archived models.
– Can make modifications as necessary: edit geometry (limited);
redefine loads, contact, output, etc. (same as for native models)
– Can create and submit analysis jobs and interactively monitor
solution progress (same as for native models).

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 Abaqus input file

Nodes Surfaces
Elements
Node and element sets

Materials
Procedures
Sections
Output requests
Abaqus
input file

Interactions
Amplitudes
Interaction properties

Loads Monitor variables

Boundary conditions Adaptive mesh controls

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