ME5554/ME5305 Part 2 - Tutorial 1

1. The problem

Linear elastic and elasto-plastic analysis of a steel sheet with

circular and square holes using ABAQUS

80 E = 210 GPa
40
 = 0.25
200
40
 y = 450 MPa

200

40

40 x

40 40
100 100

Dimensions in mm
Thickness = 4

Case 1: Prescribe a displacement uy = 2 mm on the edge y = 400.

Case 2: Apply a uniformly distributed load on the edge y = 400, whose value is the
same as the resultant of the vertical reactions on same the edge computed
in case 1 under the assumption of linear elasticity.
In both cases, first perform a linear elastic analysis, and then perform an elasto-
plastic analysis assuming perfect plasticity (i.e. no hardening), a yield stress equal to
the value y given above, and a J2 von Mises model of associative type.

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 2. Set up the model

Create your own directory in drive D. Do not use drive H.

Open Abaqus CAE and create a new model.
From the Main menu: File → Set Work Director... Insert your chosen directory. This
will ensure that all the output files will be in this directory.

3. Model the geometry as a single part

Double Click on the “Parts” in the Model Tree and choose 2D Planar and the options
shown below. Name the part “Sheet” (or as you wish).

A sketch window will open and sketch tool buttons will appear. Click on “Create lines:
Rectangle (4 lines)”.

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Insert coordinates: 0,0 Enter 200,400 Enter
Use the resize button “Auto-Fit View” to fit the rectangle on the window.

So that you obtain:

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Repeat the operations creating other two rectangles.
Insert coordinates: 40,40 Enter 80,80 Enter
Insert coordinates: 40,280 Enter 80,320 Enter
Click on “Create Circle: Center and Perimeter”

Insert: 100,200 → 140,200

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Click on “Cancel Procedure”.

And then click on “Done”.

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Save the file.

4. Define Material and Section and assign Section

Double click on “Materials” in the model tree. Name the material “Steel”.
Choose “Mechanical” → “Elasticity” → “Elastic”

Insert the “Young’s modulus” and the “Poisson ratio” and click on “OK”.
Double click on “Sections” in the model tree. Name the section “Steel sheet” and
choose options as below. Click on “Continue ...”

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Accept material “Steel” and click on “OK”.

Expand the model tree clicking on “Parts”, then on “Sheet” and then on “Features”
and double click on “Section Assignments”.

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Select the sheet and then click on “Done”

Accept the settings and click on “OK”.

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Save the model.

5. Create the Assembly

Expand “Assembly” in the model tree and double click on “Instance”. Choose
“Independent (mesh on instance)” and click on “OK”.

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 6. Create a Load Step

We will now create a step in the analysis.

From the model tree double click on “Steps”. This will automatically create a new step
which you can name “Prescribed top displacements” as in below:

We are going to conduct a static analysis, whereby you can accept the option “Static,
General” and click on “Continue”. The following window will appear:

Firstly, we want to conduct an elastic analysis, for which neither increments nor
iterations are needed. Hence, one single increment from t = 0 to t = 1 will be
sufficient to apply the entire action, that, in this case, will be the prescribed

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displacements on the top line. Therefore, you can accept the default settings and
click “OK”.

7. Apply Boundary Conditions

To apply the boundary conditions (BCs), click on “BCs” on the model tree.
A BCs window will appear. You can name this BC as “Ux = 0; Uy = 0”, or any other
name you wish (Note: this is just a name that serves the purpose of remembering
what this condition is, we are not enforcing anything just by putting the name “Ux = 0;
Uy = 0”):
Choose “Displacement/Rotation” and click on “Continue”.

Click on the bottom edge of the sheet and then on “Done”. Tick “U1” and “U2” and
insert values of zero and then on “OK”.

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Now apply a new BC by double clicking on “BCs” again. Name it “Uy = 2mm” and
then on “Continue”.

Select the top edge of the sheet and then click on “Done”. Tick “U2” and insert the
value “2”. Click on “OK”.

8. Mesh the Model

Now we need to mesh the model to make it a real “finite-element” model.

To this end, from the module drop-down list choose “Mesh”.

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Click on the “Seed Part Instance” button.

Enter an “Approximate global size” of 10 and click on “OK” first and then on “Done”.
Notice that other methods of seeding, that are defining the local size of the mesh in
each region of the model, could have been used. You can explore the various
possibilities by clicking on the “Seed Edges” and follow the steps that appear.
Click on the “Assign Mesh Controls” button as in the figure below.

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Accept the current settings and click on “OK”. Note, the current settings mean that
quadrangular “Quad”, quadrangular dominated “Quad-dominated” and triangular “Tri”
will be suitably combined. Other methods of meshing are not possible in this case
because of the particular feature of the geometry which does not allow a structured
mesh or a swept mesh to be created.

Click on the “Assign Element Type” button and select the sheet, then click on “Done”.

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Choose “Quadratic” instead of “Linear” and accept the other settings by clicking on
“OK”.
Now, to mesh the model, click on the “Mesh Part Instance” button and click on “Yes”
at the question “Ok to mesh the part instance”.

Roll the wheel of the mouse slightly to make the graphics work properly so that you
obtain something similar to what in the figure below.

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Save the model.

9. Run the Linear Elastic Analysis and View the Results

The model now is ready to be analysed. To this end, you need to create a job.
In the “Analysis” tree, double click on “Jobs”. Name the job: “Elastic_Analysis1” (no
spaces in the name). Click on “Continue” and accept all the other settings.

To submit the job, right click on the job “Elastic_Analysis1” and choose “Submit”.
Wait until the analysis is completed.

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To view the results, right click on the “Elastic_Analysis1” under the job entry of the
“Analysis” menu and choose “Results”.

In this way, you will automatically open the “odb” file, i.e. the “Output Database.
Click on the “Plot Contours on Deformed Shape” button so that the contour plot of the
von Mises stress is shown. The von Mises stress is the default field which is shown,
but this can be easily changed.

For example, to view the contour plot of y, click on “Filed Output Dialog”. From the
main menu, choose S22 and then on “OK” as below:

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Notice that the contour plots do not differ significantly. This is because component y
is the predominant one.
Plotting component x, instead, results in a quite different contour plot.

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Notice that a magnification factor has been applied by the program automatically. To
view the true deformation click on “Options” → “Common” from the main menu, tick
“Uniform” and choose the value 1.

10. Run an Elasto-Plastic Analysis

To conduct an elasto-plastic analysis, double click on “Model” first to access the set
of tools for the model.

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Double click on “Steel” from the “Materials” tree. Choose “Plasticity” then “Plastic”

Insert “450” as the “Yield Stress” and “0” for the “Plastic Strain”, then click on “OK”.
Not adding any other couples of values, the program interprets this as the
assumption that when the von Mises stresws is below the yield stress, the behaviour
is elastic, and that when plasticity occurs, the von Mises stress is constant and equal
to the yield stress.

To conduct the plastic analysis, a nonlinear incremental, iterative procedure is

needed. To this end, double click on step “Prescribed Top Displacement” and click
on the “Incrementation” tab.

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Change the initial and maximum increment size from “1” to “0.05”.

The step goes from t = 0 to t = 1. The type of incrementation is “Automatic” which

means that starting from a user-given initial value the time increment is automatically
adjusted by the program typically to maintain the rate of convergence within an
acceptable range (the meaning of this will be clearer later on in the module).
A linear increment of the action is considered by default (“ramped load”). Hence, the
new settings imply that in each increment of the analysis the prescribed displacement
cannot be larger than 0.05*2=0.1.
The automatic incrementation procedure may mean that the time increment is
smaller than 0.05, and therefore, the total number of increments will be 20 or more.
Click on “OK” and then create a new job by double clicking on “Jobs” in the tree.
Name the job differently from the first one, for example “Plastic_Analysis1”. Click on
“Continue” and then on “OK”.
Resubmit the analysis.
You will see that the analysis takes much longer to complete. To check its progress,
you can right-click on “Plastic_Analysis1” and choose “Monitor”.
This will show the progress of the increments and iterations “live”.
Open the results of the analysis by right-clicking on “Plastic_Analysis1” and choosing
“Results”.
To view the equivalent plastic strain, change the variable of the contour plot to
PEEQ, i.e. the “equivalent plastic strain”, as below:

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It is very useful in most cases to view an animation, which can be done by clicking on
the “Animate Time History” button.

11. Refine Mesh and Re-Run the Analysis

The prediction obtained with this simulation is that the highest plastic strains are
developed starting from the stress concentration on the right side of the circular hole.
No significant plastic strain is observed close to the corners of the squared holes. Is
this a result of the relatively coarse mesh close to such vertices?

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To improve the mesh close to the square hole, an efficient way involves splitting each
edge of each square into two lines. To this end, from the “Module” drop-down menu,
select “Assembly”, then click on the “Sheet-1” instance of the model and click and
hold on the “Partition edge” button as below:

Choose the button “Partition edge: Select Midpoint/Datum Point”. Select one edge
(accept that the meshes will be deleted when the warning message pops up) and
then select the midpoint on the same edge. Click on “Create Partition”.

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Repeat the same operation for all edges. You will see that by clicking on one line
only half of it is highlighted as a result of the line being partitioned into two parts.
Once all the edges have been partitioned, move to the “Mesh” module and click on
“Seed Edges”. Click one of the half line of one edge of one square, then click on
“Done”. In the prompt window, under “Method”, select “By number” and under “Bias”,
select “Single”. Insert “10” in the “Number of Elements” field, and set the “Bias ratio”
to “8”. Click “OK”. Notice that you can change the direction of the biased seeding by
clicking on the “Flip” bottom.
In our case, choose the seeding to be biased towards the corner (i.e. the arrow
points to the corner) as shown below.

Repeat this operation for all half edges of both squares.

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Re-seed the circle line by clicking on “Seed edges”. Select the circle line and choose
40 as the “Number of elements” along the edge.

Re-mesh the instance. You should obtain a mesh similar to the one below.

Re-run the analysis.

Opening the results, and plotting the equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ), the following
contour plot is obtained.

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By changing the contour plot setting (clicking on the “Contour Option” button as
below):

And changing the “Min/Max” setting to “Specify” with a value of 0.01, the following
contour plot is obtained:

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Animate this plot and look at the concentrations of plastic strain close to the corners
of the square holes and close to the circular hole.

Try to answer the following questions:

 Why the value of 0.01 specified as Max has changed the contour plot so
significantly?
 Where do you think the higher stress concentration occurs?

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