Introduction to Abaqus

Fabian Rojas

TA

Lab - CE 529a

Fall 2010

Abaqus ?

All the material present here come from the Abaqus Documentation

Abaqus is a suite of powerful engineering simulation programs,
based on the finite element method, that can solve problems
ranging from relatively simple linear analyses to the most
challenging nonlinear simulations.

Abaqus contains an extensive library of elements that can model
virtually any geometry. It has an equally extensive list of
material models that can simulate the behavior of most typical
engineering materials including metals, rubber, polymers,
composites, reinforced concrete, crushable and resilient foams,
and geotechnical materials such as soils and rock.

Abaqus ?

Designed as a general-purpose simulation tool, Abaqus can be
used to study more than just structural (stress/displacement)
problems. It can simulate problems in such diverse areas as heat
transfer, mass diffusion, thermal management of electrical
components (coupled thermal-electrical analyses), acoustics,
soil mechanics (coupled pore fluid-stress analyses), and
piezoelectric analysis.

Abaqus offers a wide range of capabilities for simulation of
linear and nonlinear applications. Problems with multiple
components are modeled by associating the geometry defining
each component with the appropriate material models and
specifying component interactions.

ABAQUS/CAE, ABAQUS/Viewer and the Analysis

Module

Abaqus/CAE

Abaqus/CAE (Complete Abaqus Environment) is an
interactive, graphical environment for Abaqus. It
allows models to be created quickly and easily by
producing or importing the geometry of the structure
to be analyzed and decomposing the geometry into
meshable regions. Physical and material properties
can be assigned to the geometry, together with loads
and boundary conditions. Abaqus/CAE contains very
powerful options to mesh the geometry and to verify
the resulting analysis model. Once the model is
complete, Abaqus/CAE can submit, monitor, and
control the analysis jobs. The Visualization module
can then be used to interpret the results.

Abaqus CAE

Abaqus CAE

An Abaqus model is composed of several
different components that together describe the
physical problem to be analyzed and the results
to be obtained. At a minimum the analysis model
consists of the following information:

Discretized geometry

Element section properties

Material data

Loads and boundary conditions

Analysis type

Output requests.

Abaqus CAE

Abaqus/CAE is divided into functional
units called modules. Each module
contains only those tools that are relevant
to a specific portion of the modeling task.

Simulation

Abaqus consists of two main analysis productsAbaqus/
Standard and Abaqus/Explicit.

Abaqus/Standard is a general-purpose analysis
product that can solve a wide range of linear and
nonlinear problems involving the static, dynamic,
thermal, and electrical response of components.

Abaqus/Explicit is a special-purpose analysis
product that uses an explicit dynamic finite
element formulation. It is suitable for modeling
brief, transient dynamic events, such as impact
and blast problems, and is also very efficient for
highly nonlinear problems involving changing
contact conditions, such as forming simulations.

Abaqus/Viewer

Abaqus/Viewer is a subset of Abaqus/CAE that

contains only the postprocessing capabilities of
the Visualization module.

Units in Abaqus?

Question often asked is what units does ABAQUS use? The
answer is it does not use any particular units.

Another question asked : How does one set the units in
ABAQUS? The answer is you cannot set the units. Input
parameters are simply numbers as far as ABAQUS is
concerned.

Abaqus has no built-in system of units. Do not include unit
names or labels when entering data in Abaqus. All input data
must be specified in consistent units. The user has to choose
an appropriate set of units. For structural problem the user
should decide on units for Length and Force. For time
dependent problems the unit for Time also has to be chosen.

Units in Abaqus?

Consistent units.

References

Online Documentation:

1. Getting Started with Abaqus/Standard

2. Abaqus Analysis User's Manual

3. Abaqus Example Problems Manual

4. Abaqus/CAE User's Manual

5. Getting Started with ABAQUS/Explicit

All the material present here come from the Abaqus Documentation

Questions?