Tutorial 5:

Simple plastic deformation with

unloading
Laurence Marks

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1. Geometry Import
Import the geometry in the form of a step file – Tutorial 5.stp

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2. Material and section properties
Start to define the material properties – go into the properties module

Define a linear steel property – this is used for the supports and load application
part. No point in allowing that to yield. Name this material ‘Steel_Linear’.

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Now define a new steel material with plastic properties – define the elastic
properties as before but now include a second plastic behaviour and include yield
and strain properties. Name this ‘Steel_NonLinear’

Now create two sections – one called Steel_linear and one called
Steel_NonLinear

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Assign the section to the relevant parts – the bar should be non-linear and the
other parts linear.

Go into the assembly module to instance the parts.

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3. Define the first analysis step

Create a static general step and include Nlgeom and automatic stabilisation.

Set an initial time increment of 0.01 and a maximum of 0.05

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4. We now define the contacts
Create an interaction property with a friction coefficient of 0.1.

Next create a surface to surface interaction.

Contacts are defined by individually selecting faces for the master and slave
surfaces as shown below.

Repeat the process for the lower face of the bar.

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5. Define Loads and Restraints
In the boundary conditions option we create a Displacement/Rotation on the
faces highlighted below. Now apply a displacement of 0mm in the axis
perpendicular to the faces selected. This will restrain the model allow only sliding
movement and therefore will act as a symmetry plane.

Repeat this process to create a symmetry restraint on the other surface.

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Now fully fix the support in all 3 directions.

Since we know the distance which we want to load application part to travel we
shall apply a displacement to its top face. This becomes particularly useful when
trying to determine the force required to assemble two latching parts or the force
required to cause a certain amount of deflection or travel on a component.

Apply a 35mm displacement to the top face of the central part in the vertical
direction. This will be applied as a linear increment as the analysis progresses.

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6. Meshing
The assembly was instanced as dependant and therefore the model needs to be
meshed by part.

Seed the beam with 2mm hex elements and the remaining parts 3mm hex. Mesh
each part.

The model should now look like this...

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7. Create and Submit a Job
Remember to name the job something relevant to the model.

Whilst the solution is running monitor its progress

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8. View the Results
Plot the displacement and check whether the central component has displaced
by 35mm as specified.

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9. Add the unloading step and re-submit
We can add another analysis step and use the same settings as in the first step.
We can use this to define the unloading phase of the simulation.

Create a new step after Step-1. Remember to include Nlgeom and automatic
stabilisation and define the time increments - Initial: 0.01, Max: 0.05. All the other
loads/restraints/interactions etc. are propagated from the previous step.

To unload the component we need to modify the displacement that loaded the
model in Step-1. Open the boundary condition and modify the 35mm displacement
to 0mm.

Re-run the solution by re-submitting the job.

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Once the analysis has completed we can animate the model to see the unloading
step take place.

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