ABAQUS

Workshop 4
Dynamics
Goals
Become familiar with the input and output for frequency extraction, implicit dynamic,
and explicit dynamic analyses.
Become more familiar with the status (.sta) and message (.msg) files.
Learn how to plot eigenmodes and create history plots using ABAQUS/Viewer.
Learn how to perform a restart analysis.

Introduction

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In this workshop the dynamic response of the cantilever beam shown in Figure W41 is
investigated. The beam is modeled using B21 beam elements. A frequency extraction analysis
step is performed to determine the 10 lowest vibration modes of the beam. The problem is also
solved in both ABAQUS/Standard and ABAQUS/Explicit by performing direct integration
dynamic analyses to simulate the vibration of the beam upon removal of the tip load.

P
5
50
200

Figure W41. Problem Description

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Frequency Extraction Analysis

Change to the abaqus_solvers/workshop4 directory, and copy w4_beam.inp to a
new file named freq.inp.
Input Specification
1. Make the following changes to freq.inp. Refer to the online documentation as
necessary.
a. Include a density of 2.3E-6 in the material definition. Add the following option
block below the MATERIAL option:
*DENSITY
2.3E-6,
b. Change the procedure type from STATIC to FREQUENCY, and select the
Lanczos eigensolver. Request 10 modes. The finished option block should look like
the following:
*FREQUENCY, EIGENSOLVER=LANCZOS
10,
c. Remove the loading, but retain the boundary conditions (one end built-in).
d. Limit the printed node output to the data (.dat) file by restricting output to a node
set:
i. Create a node set called TIP that contains the node at the loaded end of the beam.
*NSET, NSET=TIP
11,
ii.Add the following output requests within the first step:
*NODE PRINT, NSET=TIP
U,
*OUTPUT, FIELD, FREQUENCY=999
*NODE OUTPUT
U,
2. Submit the frequency extraction analysis as an ABAQUS job.
3. After the analysis has completed, check the printed output file and make any necessary
corrections to the input.
Examining the Eigenmodes and Eigenvalues
1. Open the printed output file in an editor of your choice.

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2. Search for the second occurrence of S T E P to find the beginning of the analysis
results. The first table gives the eigenvalue output. Find the frequency (cycles/time) for
the lowest mode.
3. Visualize results:
a. Start ABAQUS/Viewer, and open the output database associated with this analysis.
b. Click the Plot Deformed Shape tool in the toolbox.
c. From the right side of the prompt area, click Deformed Options.
The Deformed Plot Options dialog box opens.
d. From the Labels folder, toggle on the node labels (numbers) and node symbols and
click Apply.
e. Select the first eigenmode by choosing ResultFrame from the main menu and
then selecting Mode 1 in the dialog box.
f. Using the arrow keys in the prompt area, select different mode shapes. Notice that
the location of node symbols help to visualize the extensional modes.
Question W41:

Are there modes of the physical system that cannot be captured by

your model because of limitations in element type or mesh?
(Remember that the elements are planar and the mesh is somewhat
coarse.)

Question W42:

Do any of the mode shapes for your model look nonphysical?

Implicit Dynamic Analysis

We now investigate the free vibration of the beam upon removal of the tip load.
Input Specification
1. Copy w4_beam.inp to a new file named dynam.inp.
Use the following steps to modify the file so that the tip of the model is loaded and then
released and allowed to vibrate freely:
a. Include a density of 2.3E-6 in the material definition.
b. Add a second step to the analysis history with a DYNAMIC procedure type. Give a
suggested time increment of 0.01 and a time period of 1.0.
c. Remove the tip load in the dynamic step by specifying CLOAD, OP=NEW. This
option removes all existing concentrated loads.

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d. Request that the tip displacement be written to the output database (.odb) file. As
before, use the NSET option to define a node set called TIP containing the node at
the loaded end of the beam. Add the following output requests to the input file:
*OUTPUT, HISTORY
*NODE OUTPUT, NSET=TIP
U,
e. Request that the displacements for all the nodes in the model be written as field data
to the output database (.odb) file.
*OUTPUT, FIELD
*NODE OUTPUT
U,
f. It is useful to be able to monitor the progress of an analysis by noting the value of
one degree of freedom. To do so, add the following option to the first analysis step:
*MONITOR, NODE=11, DOF=2
g. A restart file should be saved in order to have the data for the last increment of each
step available for continuing (restarting) the analysis from that point without
having to rerun the first part of the analysis. To obtain the data, add the OVERLAY
parameter to the RESTART option.
2. Submit the new analysis as an ABAQUS job.
While the job is running, you can check on the progress of the analysis by looking at the
status file.
Checking the Output Files and Results Visualization
1. Check the bottom of the printed output file to see if there are warning or error messages.
These messages may refer you in turn to the message file. In this case the message is
simply that the analysis did not go to the end of the step because the default number of
increments is only 10.
2. Note that the message file also contains information concerning the solution progress.
3. Open dynam.odb in ABAQUS/Viewer.
4. Create a history plot of the displacement of the tip node. Refer to the description of XY
plotting in Workshop 2, if necessary. You will see that less than one full period of
oscillation is plotted.

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Restart Analysis
In this section you will restart the analysis to continue it without starting over from the
beginning.
1. Create a new file called dynamr.inp in the text editor, and add the HEADING
option to the top of the file.
2. The RESTART option is the only other option needed in the model data of the input
file. Add the following option after HEADING:
*RESTART, READ, STEP=2, INC=10, END STEP, WRITE, OVERLAY
This option specifies that the analysis is continued from Step 2, increment 10. The
END STEP parameter terminates the current step at this point. If this parameter is
omitted, the 10 increment default limit for the step will again prevent the analysis from
continuing. The WRITE parameter writes restart output at the default frequency of 1
(every increment). The OVERLAY parameter causes restart data from each increment
to overwrite data from the previous increment so that only the last increment is retained.
3. Specify the history data:
a. Begin the history data with the STEP option. Set the INC parameter to 200 to
ensure that the analysis will not stop before the end of the step due to the increment
limit.
b. Specify a DYNAMIC procedure with the time period set to the additional time
(from the end of the second step) required for the analysis to complete a total time
of 1.0.
No loading is necessary since this is a continuation of the previous free vibration
analysis.
4. Use the following command to submit this job:
abaqus job=dynamr oldjob=dynam
Results Visualization with ABAQUS/Viewer
1. Open dynamr.odb in ABAQUS/Viewer.
2. Plot the displacement history of U2 at node 11.
Notice that the plot traces the displacement history of the node in the restart analysis.
Since the restart analysis is a continuation of an earlier job, it is often useful to view

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results from the entire (original and restarted) analysis. Thus, to create a plot of
displacement history from these two analyses, follow the steps outlined below:
a. Save the current plot by selecting ResultHistory Output from the main menu.
Ensure that the correct quantity has been selected, and click Save As. Name the
plot RESTART.
b. Open dynam.odb in ABAQUS/Viewer. Following the procedure outlined above,
save the plot of U2 at node 11. Name this plot ORIGINAL.
c. From the main menu bar, select ToolsXY DataManager.
Notice that the plots ORIGINAL and RESTART are listed in the XY Data
Manager dialog box.
d. In the XY Data Manager dialog box, select plots ORIGINAL and RESTART and
click Plot to create the plot of displacement U2 at node 11 for the entire simulation.
3. From the graph, find the period and calculate the frequency of the vibration.
Question W43: How does this compare with the frequency calculated in the
eigenvalue analysis?
4. Animate the results.
a. Click the Plot Deformed Shape tool in the toolbox.
b. To animate the deformed shape, click the Animate: Time History tool in the
toolbox.
c. Click Animation Options and Deformed Options, located in the prompt area,
to modify the speed of the animation and to customize the plot, respectively.
(Continue this workshop with the next section on Explicit Dynamic Analysis after Lecture 8,
Using ABAQUS/Explicit.)

Explicit Dynamic Analysis

We now investigate the vibration of the beam using an explicit dynamic procedure
(ABAQUS/Explicit) and compare the results to those obtained with an implicit dynamic
procedure (ABAQUS/Standard).
Input Specification
1. Copy w4_beam.inp to a new file named xdynam.inp. Use the following steps to
modify the file so that the tip of the model is loaded and then released and allowed to
vibrate freely:
a. Include a density of 2.3E-6 in the material definition.

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b. Define an amplitude function named RAMP by adding the following to the input
file:
*AMPLITUDE, NAME=RAMP
0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0
c. Modify the step definition by setting the parameter NLGEOM=NO on the STEP
option, and change the procedure option for the step to DYNAMIC, EXPLICIT.
Specify a total step time of 1.0 s, as shown below:
*DYNAMIC, EXPLICIT
,1.0
Question W43:

Why is the NLGEOM parameter set to NO in this analysis?

d. Add the AMPLITUDE parameter to the CLOAD option, and set it equal to RAMP.
This will have the effect of linearly ramping the load from zero to the specified
value over the course of the step. By loading the structure slowly enough, we can
simulate a quasi-static response. Simulating quasi-static processes with explicit
dynamic methods is discussed in more detail in Lecture 10.
e. Request that the tip displacement be written to the output database file. As before,
use the NSET option to define a node set called TIP containing the node at the
loaded end of the beam. In addition, write the whole model internal and kinetic
energies to these files. The following output requests should be added to the input
file:
*OUTPUT,HISTORY, TIME INTERVAL=0.005
*NODE OUTPUT, NSET=TIP
U,
*ENERGY OUTPUT
ALLIE, ALLKE
f. Request that the displacements for all the nodes in the model be written as field data
to the output database (.odb) file.
*OUTPUT, FIELD
*NODE OUTPUT
U,
g. Add a second analysis step with a DYNAMIC, EXPLICIT procedure type. Set
NLGEOM=NO on the STEP option, and specify a total step time of 1.0.
h. Remove the load by specifying a CLOAD option with the OP=NEW parameter:
*CLOAD, OP=NEW

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i. A restart file should be saved in order to have the data for the last increment of each
step available for continuing (restarting) the analysis from that point without
having to rerun the first part of the analysis. To obtain the data, add the OVERLAY
parameter to the RESTART option
2. Submit the new analysis as an ABAQUS job.
You can check on the progress of the analysis by looking at the status file if the job is
running in background mode. If the job is running interactively, the contents of the
status file are printed to the screen.
Checking the Output Files and Postprocessing
1. Check the bottom of the printed output file to see if there are warning or error messages.
These messages may refer you to the status file.
Note that the status file also contains information concerning the progress of the
calculations, provided the job was run in background mode.
2. Open xdynam.odb in ABAQUS/Viewer.
3. Plot the tip nodes displacement history, and compare the results obtained with
ABAQUS/Standard against the results obtained with ABAQUS/Explicit by plotting
both results on the same plot. Your results should look similar those shown in
Figure W42.

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STD (DT=0.01)
XPL

Figure W42. Comparison of the Tip Node Displacement History

Question W44:

How do the results compare with one another? What factors

contribute to the discrepancies in the solutions?

4. Compare the internal and kinetic energy content of the model by plotting these
quantities on the same plot. Do this only for the ABAQUS/Explicit results.
Question W45:

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Was the loading rate small enough to ensure a quasi-static response

in the first step?

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