TUTORIAL 1 (BASIC):

SIMPLE BRACKET

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Learning Objectives
• Build on the knowledge gained from the first tutorial
• Analyse an assembly with several instances
o Automatically find contact pairs
o Include basic model requirements
• Further explore Abaqus viewer
o Hide/Show instances
o Investigate different contour plots

Learning Note: This tutorial assumes the first tutorial has been completed and
understood. The tutorial still details all the steps involved in generating a model
however it is assumed that the user is now acquainted with the interface.

If any of the steps are unclear please refer to Tutorial 1.

To complete this tutorial you will need the accompanying CAD geometry ‘Tutorial
2.STEP’.

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1 Geometry Import
• Set the Work Directory by going to File > Set Work Directory, then
navigate to the folder containing the geometry and selecting it as the
Work Directory

• Import the geometry in the form of a step file – Tutorial 2.STEP, as

shown in the figure below

• Accept all default settings

The geometry is now imported as individual parts. To view each part

navigate through the part list shown in the figure below.

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2 Material and Section Properties
In this section you will define material properties, create a section definition and apply it to the
part.

• To define the material properties first go to the properties module, as shown in the
image below

Abaqus does not handle the units for us, so we need to take this into consideration. For
example, if our geometry is in mm and our force is in Newtons then our stresses will be
reported in MPa.

There are many options for material models, types and data, we are simply going to define the
most basic sort required for a linear run.

• Define some basic elastic material properties for Aluminium by using the ‘Create
Material’ tool and name the material ‘Aluminium’ for clarity later

For a basic elastic analysis we only need to define an elastic modulus and a Poisson’s ratio.

• Define a modulus of 70e3 (Newton and mm units – remember to be consistent) and a

Poisson’s ratio of 0.28

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We now need to define a section. With a simple material definition and solid elements this
often seems like an unnecessary step, but it comes into its own with more complex models.

• Create a new solid homogenous section, give the section a unique name and apply the
recently created aluminium material properties to it by using the ‘Create Section’ tool

and click OK

Previously naming the materials and sections may not seem necessary but it avoids confusion
when applying definitions, particularly if we’ve created more than one of each.
This section now needs to be applied to the geometry. This is how we tell the software which
parts are made of what.

• Click the ‘Assign Section’ tool , select the geometry in the viewport and click ‘Done’
in the prompt area below the viewport

• Apply the recently created section and click ‘OK’

3 Create an Assembly

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In Abaqus there is no such thing as a part on its own, it must always exist as an assembly.
Again, this may seem redundant for a single part but becomes more obvious after the
assembly lecture in the ‘Introduction to Abaqus’ training course.

• Go into the assembly module from the drop down module list to instance the part (i.e.
applying the part to an assembly)
• Click the ‘Create Instance’ tool , select the part from the list and click OK

Clicking apply and OK both instance the part, so clicking both instances the part twice. This is
a common mistake that catches many people out. As both instances reference the same
global co-ordinate system they lie on top of each other perfectly and often don’t become
apparent until post-processing the results.

To check that you have only instanced the part once look how many instances are listed under

the assembly node in the feature tree, .

4 Define an Analysis Step

Abaqus has a wide range of solution types and options which we will explore in later tutorials,
for now we are going to define the simplest, a single step static - general solution.

• Go to the step module, click the ‘Create Step’ tool , select a Static - General step
and click ‘Continue’

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For now we will accept the default settings. This will solve the entire analysis in a single step.
This is possible for a very basic model like this, but more complex analyses will require
hundreds or even thousands of time steps to reach a solution.

• Accept the default settings and click OK

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5 Loads and Restraints
As there are no interactions in this model, we jump straight to the load module to define loads
and restraints. Restraints are particularly important as they stabilise the model, without
sufficient restraints the solution may not converge.

Firstly we define a full fixing at the pair of holes on the back of the bracket.

• Go to the ‘Load’ module from the module list

• Select the ‘Create Boundary Condition’ tool and choose Displacement/Rotation,
click Continue

• Select all the internal faces on both bore holes (hold shift to select multiple faces) and
click ‘Done’ in the prompt area at the bottom of the viewport

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If a face has been selected in error this can be de-selected by holding Ctrl and clicking the
unwanted face.

• In the ‘Edit Boundary Condition’ window that appears check all three translational
degrees of freedom (U1, U2 and U3) then click OK

Now we define a load in the form of a surface traction, this is a force per unit area in a defined
direction. A surface traction is similar to a directional pressure.

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 • Select the ‘Create Load’ tool , choose surface traction from the type list and click
‘Continue’

• Select the face highlighted in the image below and click ‘Done’ in the prompt area

• In the ‘Edit Load’ window enter a value of ‘1’ in the magnitude definition and set the
traction type to general

For a surface traction we need to specify a direction in which the force should act.

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 • In the ‘Edit Load’ window click the arrow located next to ‘Vector’ and in the viewport
select the two points highlighted below, then click OK

The nodes selected are arbitrary as long as they create a vector in the X-axis, however the
order in which the points are selected is important as this denotes the direction in which the
force will act. We want the force to be pulling on the bracket as if it was bolted to a wall
supporting a rope.

We have now created a 1N force in the X-axis direction.

6 Meshing
The meshing module’s function is self explanatory. By default Abaqus CAE will try and mesh
3D parts using brick elements, however this only works for a subset of possible geometries.

If you instanced the geometry as ‘dependant’ (instances are dependant by default) you will
need to view the geometry as an individual part before a mesh can be applied to it. This is done
by changing the object definition to ‘Part’ instead of ‘Assembly’ at the top of the viewport
.

This may seem unnecessary but in large assemblies with repetitive instances the relevance of
this functionality becomes obvious.

First we need to define meshing seeds, these control the mesh size and show how the mesh
will appear without actually meshing the part. This saves us from having to mesh the entire
component every time we modify the seed size.

• Go to the ‘Mesh’ module

• Click the ‘Seed Part Instance’ tool and assign a global size of 2 (remember this is
in mm), accept defaults and click OK

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Next we define a meshing approach, this dictates the element shape and meshing technique.

• Click the ‘Assign Mesh Control’ tool , select a ‘Tet’ mesh and accept all the other
defaults

• Click the ‘Mesh Part’ tool and click ‘Yes’ in the prompt area to apply the mesh

The viewport will automatically update to display the meshed part. We can now visualize our
mesh and modify if necessary.

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The mesh can be locally refined using local mesh seeds. This is particularly useful if we need to
increase the number of elements at a high stress region but don’t want a huge overhead by
decreasing the element size for the entire model.

Before a local mesh seed can be applied we need to delete the current mesh.

• Click and hold the icon used to mesh the part in order to view the tools nested beneath,
scroll along and select ‘delete part native mesh’ , then click ‘Yes’ in the prompt area

• Select the two fillet faces in the model (holding shift for multiple faces), as shown below,

select the ‘seed edges’ tool and apply a local seed of 1mm, then click OK

• Now re-mesh the part using the ‘Mesh Part’ tool,

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7 Submitting a Job
Finally we move on to the job module. Within this module we will create a run for the analysis
and watch its progress.

• Go to the ‘Job’ module in the module list

• Select the ‘Create Job’ tool and name the job

IMPORTANT: Do NOT accept the default name of ‘Job-1’. Two jobs of the same name in the
same folder will overwrite each other. It is good practice to name the job something specific to
the analysis.

• The job will now appear under the ‘Job’ section in the feature tree, to run this job right
click, select ‘Submit’ then click ‘OK’ in then ‘Edit Job’ window

Whilst the solution is running we can monitor its progress. This will give an indication as to
whether the job has been completed successfully, whether it is still solving or if the job has
aborted with an error.

If the job aborts or fails to converge go back over the previous steps to check if everything is
correct.

• Right click the job and select ‘Monitor’

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8 Viewing the Results
Once the job is completed a message will appear in the ‘Log’ window in the job monitor saying
‘Completed:’ with the time stamp of when the job finished solving. A message will also appear

next to the job in the feature tree indicating that it has completed, .

• To view the results file right click the job again and select ‘Results’

CAE has a second feature tree for results processing and another set of menus. Some of these
features have been outlined below.

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 Deformed shape

Contour plot
(Stress, Displacement etc.)

Animation

Section

Now we can create a contour plot of the results. It is possible to plot many different quantities
on the model but we want a Von Mises Stress plot.
• Select ‘Result’ > ‘Field Output’ from the menu bar, choose stress as the variable and
Mises as the invariant, then click OK

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 • Now we have selected what we require the contour plot to show we can apply it to the
model by selecting the ‘Plot Contours’ tool

Explore the tools available in the viewer module. Try creating a displacement plot, animate the
model or apply a section cut.

Congratulations, you’ve analysed your first FE model!

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