Superior quality simulation through high-end technology capabilities
CEL
CEL is defined as the Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian method which combines the features of Eulerian and Lagranian element formulation. Eulerian element formulation gives the flexibility to model the extreme deformation scenario as fluid flow without affecting the mesh quality, whereas Lagrangian element formulation allows the modeling of conventional FE elements. This technology expand the scope of Abaqus beyond the usual finite element domain, allowing, amongst other things, complex fluid structural interaction problems to be tackled.
Composite Modelling
Abaqus provides the capability to model the composites through different ways. Composites can be modelled through section definition, through in built composite layup module, and also through a separate plug-in, composite modeler especially developed for composites.
Abaqus provides the flexibility to model the details of ply in terms of material, orientation, thickness and progressive damage and failure model. Users can do a detailed micro-model which describes the behavior of the constituents: matrix and reinforcements or a meso-model of the composite considering the homogenized material properties at the ply level to a macro-model which simulates the global response of the laminate.
Contact
Contact remains one of the most challenging aspect of many FEA simulations. Abaqus provides one of the robust contact simulation capabilities not just in terms of the solver but also in terms of pre-processing of geometry and meshing capability to accurately represent the contact surfaces. Abaqus has very well defined library of output variables to capture the mechanism of contact and visualize the useful results. It also provides very descriptive diagnostic analysis data tolls to debug the simulation progress of the simulation and convergence issues.
Crash/Impact
The Dynamic explicit solver available with the Abaqus CAE suite provides the capability to simulate transient dynamic problems such as crash/Impact. However, Abaqus also has the option of implicit solver and both can be used to address each others limitations.
Fracture/Failure
Abaqus pre-processor gives a wide range of material and damage model capability to incorporate material damage into the simulation. The material model covers metal plasticity, damage for composites, elastomers, delamination, plasticity due to creep, brittle cracking. Abaqus provides the capability to model crack through conventional FEA using J-integral approach, XFEM as well as VCCT.
Scripting
The skeleton of Abaqus is written in Python and Abaqus CAE provides an scripting interface to the users to customize the specific needs in porder to automate certain actions which are repeated in the standard workflow or to generate a parametric model. The customization can range from development of workflow to the automatic post-processing of analysis, the extensions are unlimited and provide the user with suitable software for his particular applications.
SPH
In SPH method, fluids and solids can be modelled as particle and these particles can interact with the conventional FE models. This approach allows to simulate fluid structure interaction as well as problems with very high strain. Some of the standard applications include the following: Birdstrikes, hydrodynamic loadings, forming, mixing, forging, cutting, ballistics, explosions.
XFEM
XFEM is an additional capability to model the crack which is available in Abaqus since v6.9 and later. This method allows the user to model crack initiation and crack propagation without specifically pre-defining the crack location, crack tip and crack front features which are needed in the conventional FEA. In this method, crack can propagate need not follow the mesh boundary but it can cut across the elements making it very powerful tool in application where crack does not propagate along a defined path.
User subroutine
User subroutines are provided to increase the functionality of several Abaqus capabilities for which the usual data input methods alone may be too restrictive. They provide an extremely powerful and flexible tool for analysis written as C, C++, or Fortran code. Abaqus provides a list of user subroutine for both Abaqus Standard and Abaqus Explicit solvers.