Abaqus CAE: A Detailed Introduction to Structural Analysis

Get introduced to Abaqus CAE for multiphysics structural analysis, learn its role within the Dassault System portfolio, and how to start sessions for standard or explicit models.

Explore the Abaqus gui, open gui.cae, and navigate the model tree with parts, assemblies, and properties using toolbars and viewports.

Learn to interact with Abaqus CAE models by rotating, panning, and zooming using mouse controls or the view toolbar, with customizable software presets and auto fit view.

Explore the overall model build and solution in Abaqus CAE through a cantilever beam, covering 1d, 2d, and 3d modeling with beam, shell, and solid sections.

Master 1D cantilever beam setup in Abaqus CAE by creating a wire, BIM section, and rectangular profile with steel; apply 200 N load and run a static analysis.

Create a 2D Abaqus model of a cantilever beam using a shell with four-millimeter thickness, steel, and a 200 N load, then compare results to 1D and 2D elements.

Model a cantilever beam as a 3D Abaqus CAE problem by creating a solid plate, defining steel properties, applying loads and boundary conditions, and running a linear static analysis.

Explore Abaqus CAE's 1D, 2D, and 3D problem setups, including beam, cell, and solid sections, and learn the full workflow from part creation to visualization.

Explore sketcher options in Abaqus CAE, including grid settings, snap to grid, and reset view. Create points, lines, circles, ellipses, arcs, fillets, constraints, splines, construction lines, and offset curves.

Explore sketcher options in Abaqus CAE for structural analysis, including auto trim, trim and extend, split, remove gaps, merge vertices, translate, rotate, scale, mirror, and linear/radial patterns.

Learn how to define dimensions and apply constraints in sketcher to fix size and position, explore common constraints, auto constraint, symmetry, and parametric relations.

Master the Abaqus sketcher workflow by creating a fully constrained sketch with circles, arcs, and a rectangle, using tangent, coincident, and mirror constraints.

Learn to build a symmetric sketch in Abaqus CAE: create a quarter of an arc with 12 mm holes on a 122 pitch circle, then pattern or mirror to complete.

Learn to create solid, shell, and wire shapes in Abaqus CAE using extrusion, revolve, sweep, and loft; build parts and features for 1D, 2D, and 3D analyses.

Learn how to create shell and wire shapes in Abaqus CAE using extrusion, revolution, sweep, planar fills, and wire creation methods for 2D and 1D analyses.

Create datum features in Abaqus CAE, including points, axes, planes, and coordinate systems. Discover various methods to construct them, such as by coordinates, offsets, three-point planes, and projections.

Explore the fundamentals of linear static analysis, learn to obtain displacement and stress against acceptance criteria, and decide when material, geometric, or contact nonlinearity is required.

Examine mesh convergence by testing different element sizes to select appropriate size for a cantilever beam analysis. Understand how boundary conditions and kinematic coupling influence stress and displacement across meshes.

Explore mesh convergence in Abaqus CAE by varying element size from 15 mm to 6 mm, evaluating reaction force, stress, and displacement to select an optimal size via successive changes.

Explore mesh convergence in Abaqus CAE by comparing cantilever beam models with two-layer and three-layer thickness, varying element sizes, and observing stress convergence under a constrained y displacement.

Learn to save display settings in Abaqus CAE, including legends, compass, triad, and mesh visibility, by adjusting options and saving to a .gr file for reuse.

Learn Abaqus CAE for linear static analysis of a steel beam bracket using an orphan mesh imported from an INP file, including material setup, boundary conditions, and stress results.

The input file, dot inp, is the universal Abaqus file containing all model data, including nodes, elements, material, thickness, and loads, read by the solver and preprocessor.

Learn how the dot dat file reveals Abaqus CAE modeling errors and supports output requests. Identify missing properties and use the monitor to view reaction forces in the dat output.

Explore the message file as the source of convergence information in nonlinear analysis. Learn to use data check and monitor to diagnose issues and view errors such as boundary conditions.

Explore the status file in Abaqus CAE to track analysis progress, steps, and iterations; learn to monitor degree of freedom and interpret logs, errors, and warnings for reliable results.

Explore output formats in Abaqus, learning to differentiate field and history outputs, request only needed results, and optimize the ODB size and solve time through targeted data.

Understand the theoretical foundations of buckling analysis and identify the critical loads in long columns under axial compression using eigenvalue buckling concepts and buckling load factors.

Explore four end-condition cases of column buckling, derive critical load from Euler's equation, and relate effective length to boundary stiffness in Abaqus CAE simulations.

Explore a fixed–free column buckling case in Abaqus CAE, compute the critical load using Euler's equation and minimum moment of inertia, and examine buckling mode shapes.

Abaqus CAE analyzes column buckling with pin ends, yielding a 86.27 kN critical load and an effective length equal to the original length.

Explore Abaqus CAE by analyzing case three (fixed-pinned) and four (fixed-fixed) boundary conditions on a column, determine critical loads 176 kN and ~345 kN, and verify eigenvalues and mode shapes.

Perform a buckling analysis in abaqus cae on a mobile tower with rigid joints, using two cross sections and a 1 N load to extract eigenvalues and visualize first modes.

Explore 3D buckling analysis of a steel spring in Abaqus/CAE, including scaling to 46 mm, tetrahedral C3D10 mesh, and Lanczos buckling results.

Explore the foundation of nonlinear analysis, compare with linear analysis, and identify geometric, material, and boundary nonlinearities, including how stiffness changes and substeps influence convergence.

Set start time, end time, and increments in Abaqus CAE to control non-linear analysis. Tune initial, minimum, and maximum increments to ensure the model can solve and manage cutbacks.

Understand how to monitor analysis progress by learning steps, increments, and iterations in Abaqus CAE. Each step contains multiple increments, and each increment requires multiple iterations to reach equilibrium.

Explore geometric nonlinearity in structural analysis. Update the stiffness matrix for large strain, large rotation, stress stiffening, and spin softening with practical examples.

Explore stress stiffening of a simply supported beam in Abaqus CAE, analyzing three cases: axial compressive, no axial, and axial tensile load, using geometric nonlinearity to capture stiffening.

Examine geometric nonlinearity in Abaqus CAE by comparing linear and nonlinear geometry on a cantilever beam, applying per-node loads and revealing differences in stress, displacement, and curvature.

Explore material nonlinearity in Abaqus CAE, from elastic to yield point. Compare engineering and true stress-strain curves and provide an overview of nonlinear elastic, elastic-plastic, and hyperelastic models.

Demonstrates nonlinear analysis of a spring plate with metal plasticity in Abaqus CAE, applying a 100 N load to a fixed end, and evaluating stress, elastic strain, and plastic strain.

Explore contact and boundary nonlinearity in Abaqus CAE, showing how surfaces interact to transfer forces and how contact status—closed, open, sticking, or sliding—drives stiffness via friction.

Create and analyze surface-to-surface contact in Abaqus CAE by defining two interacting surfaces, choosing finite sliding, applying a friction coefficient, and examining normal and tangential force transfer.

Explore Abaqus contact types in standard and explicit solvers, including contact pair, general contact, and contact element. Learn how element-based, node-based, analytically rigid, and Eulerian surfaces influence crashes.

Perform a contact analysis in Abaqus CAE, defining master and slave surfaces and comparing surface-to-surface with node-to-surface contact in a two-block steel model under 50 megapascal pressure, 20 kilonewton transfer.

Explore node-to-surface versus surface-to-surface contact in Abaqus CAE. Compare results on a viewport, view contact pressure contours, and assess master-slave and reversed roles.

Learn modal analysis, or frequency analysis, to determine natural frequencies and mode shapes, verify assembly connections, and prevent resonance by applying boundary conditions in Abaqus CAE.

Derive the modal analysis governing equation f = m x'' + c x' + k x; with zero damping, omega^2 = k/m and n = (1/2 pi) sqrt(k/m) Hz.

Model a plate to perform a modal analysis, observe rigid body modes and eigenvalues, and compare steel and aluminium effects on natural frequencies and mode shapes.

Explore how free modal analysis reveals rigid body modes in a two-part plate-and-box model, showing zero-frequency modes per body and how boundary conditions remove them.

Explore mechanism modes arising from hinge connections in a hood assembly, highlighting how a hinge connector adds a zero frequency mode beyond the six rigid body modes.

Learn to avoid resonance by shifting the natural frequency rather than changing excitation frequency, via material, geometry, stiffness, and boundary conditions, demonstrated on a plate with stiffeners in Abaqus CAE.

Learn to use mode participation factor and effective mass in Abaqus CAE to assess how many natural frequencies to request and the dominant direction of each mode in modal analysis.

Explore pre-stress modal analysis of an aluminum wing in Abaqus CAE, applying 1 MPa pressure on the bottom with a fixed end, and compare pre-stress and non pre-stress frequencies.

Explore damping in structural analysis by defining the damping matrix and understanding viscous damping, hysteretic damping, frictional damping, and magnetic damping. Analyze underdamped, overdamped, and critically damped responses.

Explore damping in a spring-mass-damper system and verify natural and damped frequencies with Abaqus cae, including how damping alters the frequency.

Explore harmonic analysis as a frequency response approach to assess structures under sinusoidal loads, focusing on resonance avoidance, steady-state vibration, and methods like full harmonic and mode superposition analyses.

Conduct harmonic analysis of fixed-fixed beam in Abaqus CAE, with two 250 N loads at one-third spans, 0.02 damping, followed by modal analysis and frequency response up to 60 Hz.

Learn to perform harmonic and modal analyses in Abaqus CAE, identify natural frequencies around 15 Hz and 41 Hz, and assess damping and resonance in frequency response.

Explore Abaqus CAE harmonic analysis settings, verify a 0.29 mm static displacement at zero excitation frequency, and compare logarithmic and linear frequency distributions during static and modal analyses.

Perform harmonic analysis in Abaqus CAE on an l-shaped bracket under 1 MPa pressure, exploring resonance near 905 Hz through modal analysis, frequency sweep, damping, and xy data plots.