Setting up a Concrete Model

1. Introduction

The model shown in Figure 1 is a 20 in. wide by 100 in. long by 8 in. tall slab of concrete that is simply
supported on one end and simply supported with a roller on the other. The concrete has bar elements
modeled along the upper portion of the bottom layer of the thickness of the slab along the lengths to
model re-bar. There is a uniform pressure load applied to the surface of the slab. The concrete material
is modeled using a nonlinear elastic material with a compressive Young’s modulus 100 times greater
than the tensile Young’s modulus.

Figure 1. Concrete Slab Model

2. Creating the Model

Create a 20 in. by 100 in. rectangle. Go to Geometry – Curve Line – Rectangle and enter 0 for X, 0 for
Y, and 0 for Z for the first corner. Click OK. Enter 100 for X, 20 for Y, and 0 for Z for the second corner,
as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Diagonally Opposite Corner of Rectangle Location

Click OK. Press CTRL-A to center your view. Go to Mesh – Mesh Control – Size Along Curve and
select the two long curves that make up the upper and lower portions of the rectangle. Click OK. Enter
10 for the number of elements. Click OK. Now select the two shorter curves that make up the left and
right sides of the rectangle. Click OK. Enter 2 for the number of elements as shown in Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Mesh Size Along Curves

Click OK. Click Cancel. Create a boundary surface by clicking on Geometry – Boundary Surface –
From Curves. Select the four curves that make up the rectangle and press OK. Click Cancel.

We now need to define the material for the concrete. This is done by first defining a stress-strain curve
that models the behavior of the concrete. Go to Model – Function and title the function Concrete
Function. Be sure to change the Type to 13..Stress vs. Strain. Enter the points as shown below by
entering the appropriate value of X and Y followed by the More button. When all three values are shown
in the X-Strain Y-Stress box as shown in Figure 4, click OK. Click Cancel.

Figure 4. Function Definition

The Concrete Function that was just created can be seen in graphical form in Figure 5.

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Figure 5. Stress vs. Strain Concrete Function

Create a material by going to Model – Material. Title the material Concrete and enter a Young’s
Modulus E of 3.6E6 and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.15 as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Isotropic Material Definition

Next, click on the Nonlinear button and select the Nonlinear Elastic radio button. Under Function
Dependence click on the drop down menu and select the function 1. Concrete Function that you
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defined earlier. Figure 7 shows the nonlinear material settings for the concrete.

Figure 7. Nonlinear Material Definition

Click OK. Click OK. You also have to define a material for the bar elements. Press the Load button
and select the AISI 4340 Steel. Click OK. The window should now look like Figure 8.

Figure 8. Isotropic Material Definition

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Click OK. Click Cancel. Three properties now need to be created. Go to Model – Property and give
the property a title of Plate. Enter a Thicknesses, Tavg or T1 of 0.1. Under Material select
1..Concrete. The plate property definition is shown in Figure 9. This property will only be temporary to
mesh the rectangle. Plot only elements could also be used to create the plate mesh.

Figure 9. Property Definition

Click OK. The second property should be a solid. Click the Elem/Property Type… button and select
the Solid radio button. Click OK. Label this property Concrete and select 1..Concrete for the Material.
The concrete material definition is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Property Definition

Click OK. The Third property should be a Rod element. Click the Elem/Property Type… button and
select the Rod radio button. Click OK. Title the property Rod and enter an Area, A of 0.0707. Under
Material select 2..AISI 4340 Steel. The window should now look like Figure 11.

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Figure 11. Property Definition

Click OK. Click Cancel. Next, go to Mesh – Geometry – Surface. Click on the surface and press OK.
Pick the plate property from the pull down menu as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12. Automesh Surfaces

Click OK. You should now have a 10 element by 2 element mesh.

You will now extrude these elements in the Z-direction. Go to Mesh – Extrude – Elements. In the
Entity Selection dialogue box click on the Select All button. Click OK. Choose the solid property
(1..Concrete) you created and enter 4 elements along the length. Be sure to check the Delete Original
Elements check box as shown in Figure 13.

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Figure 13. Generation Options

Click OK. In the Select Vector Locate - Vector to Extrude Along dialogue box enter the information as
shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14. Vector Locate

Click OK. Click OK when prompted to delete original elements.

You now need to create the bar elements that will act as re-bar in the concrete. Press the Dynamic
Rotate button (on the toolbar) and rotate your model so you can see the side of the slab. Also, in the
toolbar, click on the View Style button and select Render Solid. Next, orient your workplane to the side
of the model. Go to Tools – Workplane – Select Plane. Right click on the screen and select Snap to
Node. Then select the 3 nodes on the lower left side of the slab that will create a plane along the side as
shown in Figure 15. Click OK.

Figure 15. Model with Relocated Workplane

Next, click on Geometry – Curve Line – Coordinates. Select the left most node that is one up from
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the bottom left corner and press OK. Next click on the right most node that is one up from the bottom
right corner and click OK. This should create a line that spans across the side of the slab as shown by
the green line in Figure 16.

Figure 16. Line Created for Rod

Next go to Mesh – Mesh Control – Size Along Curve and select the curve you just created. Click OK.
Enter 10 for the Number of Elements as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17. Mesh Size Along Curves

Click OK. Click Cancel. Next, go to Mesh – Geometry – Curve and select the curve you just created.
Click OK. In the property drop down box, select the Rod property you created earlier. Click OK. In the
vector locate dialogue box enter (0,0,0) and (0,1,0), this will define the orientation of the cross section.
Click OK. Go to Mesh – Copy – Element, and select the 10 bar elements that you just created and click
OK. Under Repetitions enter 2. Click OK. The dialogue box should look like Figure 18.

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Figure 18. Generation Options

When the Vector Locate dialogue box appears, select Method/Nodes. Select the first node to be any
node on the line that you created and the second node to be perpendicular to the line,10 in. away along
the Y-axis. Click OK.

3. Creating Constraints

Next, the constraints need to be defined. Press F8 and click on ZX Front to orient your view. Click OK.
Click CTRL-A to auto-size your view. Go to Model – Constraint – Nodal. Give your constraint set a
name and click OK. Select all the nodes and the left edge that are on the same plane as the rebar (use
the Shift button) as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19. Nodes Selected for Constraints

Click OK, and then select TX, TY, and TZ. Click OK. Now select all the nodes in the bottom right corner
as shown in Figure 20.

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Figure 20. Nodes Selected for Constraints

Click OK, and then select TY and TZ. Click OK. Click Cancel. Now constrain all of the nodes that are
along the Rod elements to be constrained from rotating about the X-axis. Rotate the model such that
you are viewing the cross section. Box-pick all of the nodes that make up the Rod elements. Click OK.
Select the RX constraint and click OK. The model should now have constraints as shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21. Constraints

4. Creating the Pressure Load

Create the pressure load by going to Model – Load – Elemental. Title the load set and click OK. Select
all the elements on the top surface as shown in Figure 22. Click OK.

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Figure 22. Elements to Select for Pressure Loading

Enter a value of 10 for the pressure as shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23. Create Loads on Elements

Click OK. In the Face Selection For Elemental Loads window click on any element face that is on the
top of the slab. Click OK. Click Cancel. Check that your pressure load appears like the one in Figure
24.

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Figure 24. Loads and Constraints

You now need to coincident the nodes. Go to Tools – Check – Coincident Nodes. Click on Select All
and click OK. Check the Merge Coincident Entities box. Click OK.

Next, the nonlinear analysis options need to be setup. Go to Model – Load – Nonlinear Analysis.
Under Solution Type select the Static radio button. In the number of increments field, enter 20 as
shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25. Load Set Options for Nonlinear Analysis

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Click OK.

5. Analyzing the Model

Your model is now ready for analysis. Go to File – Analyze and choose an appropriate file name. In the
NASTRAN Analysis Control box, select 10..Nonlinear Static for the analysis type. Make sure
everything else is filled in as it is in Figure 26 and press OK.

Figure 26. NASTRAN Analysis Control

Your model should now run in the NEiNastran Editor. The analysis should take around 5-10 minutes.

6. Viewing the Results

When NEiNastran closes and FEMAP reopens, press F5. Select Contour under the Contour Style field
and click on the Deformed and Contour Data… button. In the Deformation pull down menu select
1..TOTAL TRANSLATION. In the Contour pull down menu select 60031..SOLID VON MISES. Click
OK. Click OK. You should get results like the ones shown in Figure 27.

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Figure 27. Solid Von Mises Stress and Total Translation Results

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