Tutorial 2 (Basic):

Pin/Lug Assembly

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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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 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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 Material and Section Properties
• Create an Aluminium material using the ‘Create Material’ tool with
elastic material properties; Modulus – 70,000 MPa, Poisson’s Ratio 0.3

Remember to name the material to avoid confusion later.

• Create a Steel material using the same process with elastic properties;
Modulus – 210,000 MPa, Poisson’s Ratio – 0.3

Now that we have two materials we require two sections, one for each material.
We can apply a section to multiple parts so we don’t need to create a section for
each part. This is explained further in the ‘Materials & Section Properties’ lecture.
• Create a section for each material using the ‘Create Section’ tool and
name both sections after the material that’s assigned to them

• Apply the Steel section to the pin, select the ‘Assign Section’ tool and
click the geometry in the viewport

Remember that whenever you perform an action that requires selecting

something in the viewport you need to click ‘Done’ in the prompt area below the
viewport to inform Abaqus you’ve selected everything you require.

• Apply the Aluminium section to the 3 lugs using the same process

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 Create an Assembly
If you create the geometry in Abaqus then the components will need to be
assembled, this is discussed further in the ‘Assemblies in Abaqus’ lecture.

However, if you’ve created the geometry in a CAD package and imported it in a

neutral file format then each component will reference the same global co-
ordinate system and will therefore be assembled when you instance the parts.

• Create an assembly using the ‘Create Instance’ tool , selecting all the
parts and clicking ‘OK’

Remember that clicking ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ will instance the parts twice.

It is possible to colour code the model according to material type. We can check
that all components have a material applied using this filter.

• Drop down the ‘Colour Code’ selection box and choose ‘Materials’

The model should now be two colours, one for the pin and one for the lugs. This
denotes that the lugs are of the same material and the pin is a separate material.
If any component appears transparent then no material/section has been applied.

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 Define the Analysis Step
We will use a static general step like we did for the previous tutorial, however,
this time we are going to modify the incrementation size so that the full analysis is
not performed in one go. This is important for larger models that are more difficult
to solve but also makes viewing the results better. This will be seen later when
we post-process the model.

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

• In the incrementation tab change the initial and max increment size to 0.1

Specifying an initial and max increment of 0.1 will force the solver to complete the
analysis in 10 steps. Increment size is explained further in the ‘Steps Loads and
Boundary Conditions’ lecture.

• Accept all other default setting and click ‘OK’

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 Interaction Definition
Now that we have several components we need to define the interaction between
them. There are several methods to define interaction between components but
for this tutorial we shall use the ‘Find Contact Pairs’ tool.

• Click the ‘Find Contact Pairs’ tool , leave the options as default and
click ‘Find Contact Pairs’

The system finds 7 contact pairs we may be interested in. If we click down the list
of names the contact surfaces are highlighted in the viewport.

All the default settings are fine for an assembly in which all the overlapping faces
are contact faces, however you may want to alter the separation tolerance or
deselect the extend surface option in more complex models. It is also possible to
delete some of the contact pairs by right clicking the name and clicking delete.

We require all 7 contact pairs reported and simply need to define a property for
the contact.

• Double click the ‘Property’ header to open the ‘Create Property Interaction’
tool, select a ‘Contact’ type and click ‘Continue’

• To define a friction coefficient go to Mechanical > Tangiential Behaviour,

select a ‘Penalty’ friction formulation from the dropdown box and input a
value of 0.1, then click ‘OK’

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There are other definitions that may be important when modelling contact for
more complex cases but this is beyond the scope of the introduction course. If
complex contact modelling is of interest there is a separate course devoted to
advanced contact modelling techniques.

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 Loads and Restraints

• Select the ‘Create Boundary Condition’ tool , choose

Displacement/Rotation and Continue

• In the viewport select the two back faces of the lugs, click done in the
prompt area then set all 3 translations to zero

• Select the ‘Create Load’ tool , choose pressure from the type list,
select the opposite lug face and click ‘Done’ in the prompt area

• Apply a pressure of -1 N/mm2 and click ‘OK’

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 Meshing
We mesh the parts in exactly the same manner as we meshed the bracket. The
lugs will be meshed using a brick (hexahedral) mesh approach and don’t need
the meshing approach modified. The pin (as it stands at this stage) needs to be
meshed using tetrahedrons. It is possible to mesh the pin as hexahedral
elements by partitioning geometry, this will be investigated in a later tutorial.

The ‘Meshing Imported and Native Geometry’ lecture discusses meshing

techniques and their advantages/limitations in greater detail.

• For the lugs mesh the geometry using the default meshing technique and
default global size by clicking the ‘Mesh Part’ tool

Remember to view the object definition as ‘Part’ rather than ‘Assembly’ if the
assembly has been instanced as dependant like with the previous tutorial

The pin won’t mesh using the default technique so we need to modify it.

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

• Mesh the pin using the new meshing technique and default global size by
clicking the ‘Mesh Part’ tool

To view the meshed components together change the object definition back to
‘Assembly’. The model should not look similar to the image below.

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 Submitting the Job
We can submit the job using the same process as tutorial 1.

• Select the ‘Create Job’ tool , name the job and select the model you
just created. Click Continue

REMEMBER: Do NOT accept the default name of ‘Job-1’

• Run the job by right clicking it in the feature tree and selecting ‘Submit’

Monitor the job’s progress in the ‘Job Monitor’ window. The monitor will show the
analysis solving in 10 increments, just as we specified when defining the step.
The analysis will complete when the total time reaches 1.

• Right click the job and select ‘Monitor’

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

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 Viewing the Results
When running a job in Abaqus we don’t need to wait for the solver to complete
before we can view the results, as soon as there is an increment reported there
are some results to view.
• Right click the job name in the feature tree and select ‘Results’

• Apply a contour plot by selecting the ‘Plot Contours’ tool

We can use the post processing feature tree to remove various parts of the
model to enhance visualisation.

• Right click on the part under the ‘Instances’ header and select ‘Remove’

Experiment with the Add/Remove/Replace options and try plotting the contact
pressure on the pin component.

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