ABAQUS Instruction

1. To run ABAQUS/CAE, firstly activate ABAQUS server by clicking lmstool. Then

go to start/stop/read menu and click Start Server button. At the bottom of the
interface, it will show Start Server Successful. You can close the lmstool by then.
2. Now, double click on ABAQUS/CAE icon to run the software. Start Session
interface will pop-up straight away and click on Create Model Database. You can see
module section on left hand side of the interface that consists of several modules
starting from Part, Property, Assembly, Step, Interaction, Load, Mesh, Job,
Visualisation and Sketch. These are the important parts in ABAQUS.
3. Firstly, start with Part Module. In this section, you can develop your CAD model by
clicking Part command and Create. Or you can import your CAD model using File
command and go to Import command and select Part. You can import your model
using provided extension such as *SAT and etc.

4. Now go to the second module namely Property. In it you can see various commands. The
first step is to click Material command and Create. Give any material name that easy to
identify later on. Click on General to define the density and on Mechanical to define the
Elasticity of the material. Then close the interface by clicking OK.

The second step in Property module is to create Section by choosing Section command and
Create. Give any name for the section that represents your component. Choose Solid and

Homogenous and then click continue. In Edit section pick material name specified
previously and use default value for stress/strain thickness. Then press OK button.

The third step in this module is to assign section that created before for the component. Go to
Assign command and select Section command. Then select the component to assign the
material properties and click Done.

4. The next module is Assembly. In this module, users can assemble their parts by
clicking Instance command and then go to Create. Select all components in order to
assemble them and click OK.

6. Then go to Step module to create a number of step analyses according to the selected
problem. To create the step, go to Step command and click at Create. Create Step interface
will pop-up to choose procedure type. In this project you need to create two steps namely a)
Applying pressure and b) rotating disc. Use General Static for both steps. Click Continue to
edit the step. In it use default value and click OK.

The next step in this module is to choose data that you need for the project. This can be done
by choosing the Output command. Then go to Fields Output Requests and Create. Create
Field interface will pop-up and you need to click Continue. Select the data that you require.

7. Interaction command will only be used if contact is required. This is available in

Interaction module. In this module you need to specify property of the contact i.e. tangential
and normal interaction (friction force and normal force). To set this, you need to select
property in Interaction command and choose Property and Create. In Create IP, give a
suitable name for the interaction and then select Contact for type of interaction, then click
continue. In Edit Contact Property, choose Mechanical: tangential behaviour (penalty and
give a value of friction coefficient) and Normal behaviour (use default value) and click OK.

Having finished it, you need to specify pad interface by clicking on Tools and Sets. Click on
Create and select the pad interface and click OK. Do this for both pad with different name,
i.e. pad1 and pad2. Then go to interaction command and click on Create. Select Surface-tosurface contact and click continue. Then pick your disc surface as the master surface and pad
surface and slave surface. You need to specify this for both disc and pad interfaces (inboard
and outboard). Use small sliding algorithm and in Slave Node Adjustment you need to pick
adjust slave nodes in set and select pad interface that created before according to the
interaction name. This is to make sure that nodes of the pad do not penetrate master surface
(disc surface).

The next step is to constraint the disc with a rigid body. This is required due to a solid
element does not have rotational DOFs. In so doing, go to Tools and select Reference Point
and pick any one point that locates at the center of the disc. Then go to Constraint command
and select Create. Choose Rigid Body in Type and click then click on continue. In region
type pick Tie (nodes) and go to edit (on right hand side), then select inner radius of the disc
component and click Done. After that go to Reference Point in the Edit Constraint interface.
Click on Edit button and pick the reference point (RP) that created before shown in the
screen.

8. Next is the Load module. In this module users can apply load and boundary conditions to
the components. In the project, students have to apply brake-line pressure (load) in the step
1. For boundary conditions, fixed displacements (u1,u2,u3) are imposed in Step 1 to the
reference point and for backplate only displacements on plane axis are constrained in Step
1(not in normal direction to the backplate). The disc is assigned to rotate in Step 2. In so
doing, you need to click on Load command and Create. Choose Pressure in Create Load
interface and make sure that this is in Step 1. Then select backplate surface for both pads and
insert a pressure value in the magnitude box.

Then go to BC command to impose boundary conditions. Use Displacement/Rotation in

order to prevent any movements of the disc (Reference Point) or the backplate in Step 1 and
impose rotation in Step 2 by choosing Velocity /Angular Velocity. Click on the Reference
Point to rotate the disc (not the disc itself)

9. The next stage is to create nodes and element of the components. This is done in Mesh
module. The first step is to create Seed (use Instance for automatic seeding) on the
components. Numbers of element or node are dependent upon numbers of seed. Having
satisfied with the number of seeds, go to Mesh command and click on Controls in order to
choose types of element (Hex, Hex-dominated, Tet or Wedge). In this project, Hex or Hexdominated element type are recommended (but Tet element is fine). After that click on
Element Type. Use Standard and Linear 3D Stress with element type of C3D8 (at the bottom
of the interface).

Now you can start to mesh using Mesh command and click on Instance.
10. The last step is submitting a job to simulate the analysis. To do this, go to the Job module
and create a Job name, then click on continue button. First click on datacheck and this is to
examine whether there is an error in the procedure or not. Click on OK and go to Submit to
analyse the job. If the procedure is OK (completed and successful) go to Edit command (in
Job command) and change datacheck to full analysis. Again go to Submit command to run
the full analysis. In order to visualise the results, you can click on Results in the same Job
command. If there are errors in the procedure, take a look on command ABAQUS interface
located at the bottom side. There will be guidelines where the errors come from or check on
*.data files located on the director (outside of ABAQUS/CAE).