Finite element simulation using Abaqus

1. Introduction to Abaqus:
Abaqus is an engineering simulation program which works on finite element procedures. It
has ability to solve problems starting from simple linear analysis to complex nonlinear
engineering problems. It can simulate engineering problems related to heat transfer, mass
diffusion, and thermal management of electrical components, acoustics, soil mechanics and
piezoelectric analysis.

It has extensive list of elements and material models that can be used to simulate engineering
problems involving materials like metals, rubber, polymers, composites, reinforced concrete,
foams and geothermal materials like soil and rock.

1.1 Abaqus Solver Products:

Fig .1 Abaqus solver products

1.2 Abaqus/Standard:
It is a general purpose analysis product. It has ability to solve both linear and non-linear
problems involving the static, dynamic, thermal and electric problems. Abaqus/Standard
works on implicit formulation that is, solving a coupled system of equations at each
increment by forming a global stiffness matrix.

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1.3 Abaqus/Explicit:
It is a special purpose analysis product which uses an explicit dynamic finite element
formulation for solving the problems. It is most suitable for transient dynamic problems such
as blast and impact problems, and is also very efficient for highly non-linear problems
involving changing contact conditions such as forming simulations.

1.4 Abaqus/CAE:
It is a complete Abaqus interactive environment which involves both Abaqus/Standard and
Abaqus/Explicit. It has a graphical user interface which helps us to create preprocessing steps
involved in finite element procedures. It allows us to create models quickly or to import
geometry of the structure to be analyzed. It has capability to discretize the geometry into
mesh able regions. It contains very interactive and powerful options to mesh the geometry
and to verify the resulting analysis model. Once the preprocessing step is complete,
Abaqus/CAE can submit, monitor and control the analysis jobs. The visualization model can
be used to interpret the results.

1.5 Abaqus Basics:

The finite element solutions that can be achieved using Abaqus analysis generally consist of
three distinct steps:

1. Preprocessing
2. Simulation
3. Post-processing
 Preprocessing:

In this step we must define the geometric model of the physical problem and create an
Abaqus input file. The various interactive geometric options available in Abaqus/CAE helps
us to create the geometric model, to assign material properties , to create boundary conditions
and to apply various loads required for the problem to be solved. Although the Abaqus input
file for simple analysis can be created using a text editor. The Final input file is submitted for
Analysis.

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 Simulation:
It is the second stage in which either Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit is used for
simulation of the problem defined in the input file depending on the requirement. The output
files will be stored in the form of binary files ready for postprocessing. Depending of the
type of the analysis, complexity of the analysis and the configuration of the computer facility
used, the Simulation step takes time ranging from seconds to days to complete the analysis
run.

 Postprocessing:
The visualization module in the Abaqus/CAE is used for validation of results. It reads the
output binary files and has variety of options for displaying the results, including color
contour plots, animations, deformed shape plots and X-Y plots.

Fig .2 General Steps involved in Abaqus

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1.6 Unit System in Abaqus:

Abaqus has no built in system of units, before starting modeling of the physical problem we
need to decide about the use of system of units. All input data must be specified in consistent
units. Some common consistent units are shown in Table.

Table .1 Common consistent units.

2. Tensile test:
2.1 Introduction:
Tensile testing is fundamental material science test, in which sample is subjected to a
controlled tension until failure. By measuring a force required to elongate a specimen to
breaking point material properties can be determined. The results from the test are generally
used to select a material for an application, for quality control and to predict how a material
behaves under intended applications. Properties that are directly measured via a tensile test
are ultimate tensile strength, maximum elongation and reduction in area. Uniaxial tensile test
is most commonly used for obtaining mechanical characteristics of isotropic materials.

2.2 Tensile specimen - ASTM Standards:

Tensile sample is prepared according to ‘STANDARD FOR TESTING METALLIC

MATERIALS (ASTM E8/E8M). The dimensions of the specimen used in uniaxial tensile test
are as shown below in the figure.3.

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Fig .3 ASTM tensile test specimen.

2.3 Modelling and material property:

The material used for tensile test is Ti-6Al-4V. Using following properties of parent metal
and weld metal, model is modelled in ABAQUS/CAE 6.10 version. An axisymmetric section
of parent metal is modeled as per the ASTM standards shown and exactly at the center
trapezoidal section of weld metal is created. Corresponding material properties are assigned
to both parent and weld sections as per table .2 shown below.

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Table .2 Properties of Ti-6Al-4V Specimen

Material Section Young’s modulus Density (g/cc) Yield stress

(GPa) (MPa)

Ti-6Al-4V Parent 120 4.47 943

metal

Ti-6Al-4V Weld 200 4.47 880

(Filler) metal

STRESS VS STRAIN
1200

1000

800
STRESS (MPa)

600

400

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
-200
STRAIN

Fig .4a Stress strain plot for parent metal

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STRESS VS STRAIN
1200

1000

800
STRESS(MPa)

600

400

200

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09
-200
STRAIN

Fig.4b Stress strain plot for weld metal

2.4 Applied loads and boundary conditions:

One end of the specimen is constrained in its all degrees of freedoms applying a boundary
condition ENCASTRE (U1=U2=U3=UR1=UR2=UR3=0). Another end of specimen is
allowed to move in longitudinal direction.

At the free end of specimen a displacement of 15mm is given in longitudinal direction and
explicit analysis is carried out.

2.5 Meshing a model:

Various types of elements are available in ABAQUS mesh module. For this problem we have
used C3D4: A 4-node linear tetrahedron elements. A mesh assembly with following details
is generated as shown in figure .5.

Element Type: C3D4 Linear tetrahedral

Total number of nodes: 4549

Total number of elements: 16799

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Fig .5 Meshed specimen

2.6 Results and discussion:

As said above a predefined displacement of 15mm is applied at the free end of specimen,
material elongates linearly. As the stress in parent metal reaches the yield stress, it starts
yielding and necking is observed as ultimate stress reaches the value of 1070MPa in parent
metal section.It is validation to experimental result that material should fail at section other
than welded sections. Whereas welded metal does not undergo failure due to strain
hardening. The undeformed shape, von-mises stress distribution and displacement magnitude
are shown in following figures.

Fig .6 Undeformed shape of tensile specimen

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Fig .7a Von mises stress in deformed specimen

Fig .7b Displacement magnitude

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Force vs Displacement
50000
45000
40000
35000
30000
Force

25000
20000
15000 combine ( 'Disp vs Time','RF vs
10000 Time' )
5000
0

Displacement

Fig .8

DISPLACEMENT VS TIME
16

14

12
Displacement

10

6 From Field Data: U:Magnitude

at part instance ASSEMBLY
4 node 1
2

Time

Fig .9

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3. Erichsen cupping test:

3.1 Introduction:

Erichsen cupping test is one of the formability test, which is used to evaluate the ability of
sheet metal to be formed into useful components successfully. The test consist of a sheet
metal placed between blank holder and die and pressing the test piece into the die by means
of a penetrator having a spherical head, until the end point is reached. Rupture commence
when a crack appears through the full thickness of the test piece, generally the
commencement of ruptures accompanied by a drop in the force supported by the test
piece.The drop in the force is considered as the indication of the end of the test, at this point
the depth of the penetration of the penetrator is recorded. The depth of penetration there by
obtained is measured as Erichsen index. The formability test index is identified as one of the
most important formability test result that could be used by industry for grading, selecting
and sorting of incoming sheet metals for manufacturing of various components.

3.2 Geometry and model:

The rectangular blank being drawn has dimensions of 70mm*70mm*2mm. The punch has
diameter of 25mm. The die has internal radius of 30mm, external radius of 40mm and
rounded off at the corner with the radius of 2mm.

The blank is modeled as deformable 3D shell using 6400 elements of S4R (Quadrilateral
shell) type, Die and punch are modeled as rigid 3D shell using 225 elements and 290
elements of R3D4 (rigid quadrilateral) type respectively.

3.3 Material property:

Titanium Ti6Al4V having density of 4.4 gm/cc is used for the blank which is having
nonlinear material behavior. Mechanical property parameters are shown in the table .3.
Engineering stress-strain graph obtained from tensile test data and the converted true stress-
strain graph are shown in figure .11 & 12.

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Table .3Mechanical property parameters of Ti6Al4V

Material Young’s Yield strength Tensile strength Poisson’s
grade modulus (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) ratio
Grade 5 120000 1020 1080 0.32
Titanium alloy

Engineering Stress vs Engineering Strain

1200

1000
Stress (MPa)

800

600
Series1
400

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25

Strain

Fig.11

True Stress vs True Strain

1400

1200

1000
Stress (MPa)

800

600
Series1
400

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25

Strain
Fig.12

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3.4 Contact interaction:

The contact between rigid punch and blank, rigid die and blank are modeled with surface to
surface contact formulation by defining the contact property with the frictional co-efficient of
0.15. Initially the rigid surfaces (punch & die) are offset from the blank by half of the
thickness of the blank because the contact algorithm takes the shell thickness into account.

3.5 Loading:

Abaqus/Explicit analysis is carried out in one step. Rigid punch is constrained in two
translational and three rotational DOF and it is allowed to move forward in vertical direction
towards the blank through a total distance of 6mm, rigid die is completely constrained.

3.6 Results & discussion:

The initial undeformed profile of sheet, die and punch is shown in figure.13. The deformed
shape of sheet, die and punch at a step time 0.068 and 0.08 are shown in figure.14a and .14b
since at the punch displacement of around 5.1mm corresponding to step time 0.068,
maximum stress is reached and then drop in stress value is observed. The maximum stress
reached is the indication of commencement of rupture.

The vonmises stress and the sheet displacement are plotted against the time at the node
number 3281 as shown in figure.15a and .15b and those two are combined to obtain the plot
of vonmises stress vs displacement as shown in figure .16.

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Fig.13 Undeformed profile

Fig.14a Deformed shape of the sheet at step time 0.068

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Fig.14b Deformed shape of the sheet at step time 0.08

S:Mises vs Time
1400
1200
1000
Stress

800
600
400 From Field Data: S:Mises (Avg:
75%) SP:1 at part instance
200 SHEET-1 node 3281
0
0.02
0

0.0400001
0.02800009
0.008000107
0.012000035
0.016000081

0.032000009
0.036000054

0.048000064
0.052000109
0.056000028
0.060000073
0.068000033
0.072000079
0.075999998

Time

Fig.15a Von mises stress vs time

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Sheet displacement vs Time

7
6
Displacement

5
4
3
2 From Field Data: U:Magnitude
1 at part instance SHEET-1 node
3281
0

Time

Fig.15b Displacement vs time

Vonmises stress vs Punch displacement

1400

1200

1000
Stress(Mpa)

800

At node
600
3281

400

200

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Displacement(mm)

Fig.16 Von mises stress vs displacement

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4. Three point bend test:

4.1 Introduction:

The three point bend or flexure test measures the behavior of materials subjected to simple
beam loading conditions. This test is used for brittle materials for evaluating flexural strength
and flexural modulus. In this test, the specimen of rectangular or circular section is placed on
two parallel supporting anvils. Load is applied at the midspan of the specimen by means of
actuator. The test is stopped when the specimen breaks, if the specimen doesn’t break, then
the test is continued until specimen reaches 3.5% deflection. After completion of test, load vs
deflection curve is obtained. For ductile materials this test cannot be employed to determine
the flexural strength since specimens cannot be fully bent without rupture but used only to
determine whether the material can be bent sharply without cracking and serves as a simple
acceptance test with respect to this form of ductility. In this test, flat specimen is placed on
two parallel supports, bending load is applied slowly and steadily at the midspan, and the
ductility is defined as angle until which specimen can be bent without cracking on the tension
side.

4.2 Geometry and model:

The welded specimen of rectangular cross-section has 25.6mm width, 200mm length and
thickness of 2mm and the weld bead which is at center of two joined plates is assumed to be
of trapezoidal shape in which the 2 parallel sides are of dimensions 9.2mm and 6.7mm. The
two supports are of 10mm radius and 34mm depth. The loading nose of an actuator has
10mm radius and depth of 34mm.

The specimen is modeled as 3D deformable body using 11616 elements of C3D8R

(hexahedral) type, Coarse mesh is used apart from weld bead and fine mesh is provided near
the weld bead region, Actuator is modeled as 3D deformable body using 1010 elements of
C3D8R (hexahedral) type, Supports are also modeled as 3D deformable body using 360
elements of C3D8R (hexahedral) type respectively. The final assembly of the 3D geometric
model is shown in below figure .17.

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Fig .17 Final assembly of the 3D geometric model

4.3 Material property:

Ti-6Al-4V, Grade 5 Titanium alloy is used for test specimen. It is a two phase α + β titanium
alloy, with aluminum as the alpha stabilizer and vanadium as the beta stabilizer. It has high
strength, low weight ratio, corrosion resistance and good machinability characteristics. The
mechanical property parameters of base material and weld material are shown in table .4 and
5. The engineering stress-strain graph obtained from tensile test data and converted true
stress-strain graph for both base and weld material is shown in figure.18 and .19.

Table .4Mechanical property parameters of base material

Material Young’s Yield strength Tensile strength Poisson’s
grade modulus (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) ratio
Grade 5 120000 1020 1080 0.32
Titanium alloy

Table .5Mechanical property parameters of weld material

Material Young’s Yield strength Tensile strength Poisson’s
grade modulus (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) ratio
Grade 5 100000 1000 1010 0.32
Titanium alloy

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Engineerning stress vs Engineering strain

1200

1000

800
Stress (MPa)

600
Parent material

400 Weld material

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Strain (MPa)

Fig.18

True stress vs True strain

1400

1200

1000
Stress (MPa)

800

600 Parent material

Weld material
400

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Strain (MPa)

Fig.19

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4.4 Assembly and contact interaction:

The distance between centers of the supports is maintained at 100mm. The actuator is placed
in contact with specimen at the center position. The contact between specimen and supports,
specimen and actuator are modeled with surface to surface contact formulation by defining
the contact property with the frictional co-efficient of 0.1.

4.5 Loading:

Abaqus/standard analysis is carried out in two steps namely loading and discharge. The
supports are constrained in all translational DOF and made free in all rotational DOF. The
actuator is constrained in two translational DOF and in all rotational DOF. The test specimen
is constrained in only one translational DOF and in all rotational DOF. The actuator is
allowed to move in vertically downward direction towards test specimen through a total
distance 27.8mm during loading step and made to return in vertically upward direction
through a distance 27mm during discharge step.

4.6 Results & discussion:

The final deformed specimen at step time 1(Maximum Displacement Position) and step time
2 (Final Deformed Position) are shown in figure.20a and 20b. Due to maximum displacement
given during the loading step, the specimen undergoes maximum bending angle of 39º
measured with respect to the horizontal axis. As the actuator is taken back during unloading
step 2, the specimen is allowed to retain its elastic part of strain due to which the titanium
specimen undergoes spring back action with an angle of 22º. The magnitude of the spring
back angle proves the good elastic strength of the titanium material.

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Fig.20a Specimen at its Maximum displacement

Fig.20b Final deformed shape of the specimen

The figure.21a and .21b show the stress spectrum plotted for the specimen at its maximum
displacement position and at final deformed position. It is clear from the figure that, at the
maximum displacement position, the specimen undergoes the maximum stress of 1107 MPa
and is observed at the welded portion. Whereas the maximum stress value of 930.1 MPa is
again observed in the welded portion of the specimen at the final deformed state. The von
mises stress and the displacement are plotted against the time at the node number 713 as
shown in figure .22a and 22b.

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Fig .21a Von mises stress plot for maximum displacement position

Fig .21bVon mises stress plot for final deformed position

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S:Mises (Avg: 75%) PI: WELD_SPECIMEN-1 N:

713
1200

1000

800
Stress

600

400
From Field Data: S:Mises (Avg:
200 75%) at part instance
WELD_SPECIMEN-1 node 713
0
0

0.82706368
0.699390292
0.133349612
0.619966149
0.634969711
0.639632165
0.645032465
0.646690369
0.648002744
0.656353533

0.763853431
0.780561507
0.793620229

0.860135555
0.895523131
0.937409341
1.219824195
Time

Fig .22a Von mises stress vs time

U:Magnitude PI: WELD_SPECIMEN-1 N: 713

30
25
Displacement

20
15
10
From Field Data: U:Magnitude
5 at part instance
WELD_SPECIMEN-1 node 713
0
0

0.84848237

1.25541997
0.630656958
0.644275308
0.647432566
0.673122287
0.700914502
0.728177547
0.776877284
0.779320657
0.786274493
0.793460071
0.802897871
0.828980565

0.861012995
0.885711014
0.900162399
0.919840991

Time

Fig .22b Displacement vs time

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5. Conclusion:
 The titanium Ti-6Al-4V alloy when welded, strength of the alloy is more at welded
section over the parent metal due to strain hardening effect. During the finite element
analysis of welded titanium specimen using Abaqus, it’s found that material yields at the
parent metal section rather than the welded section of the specimen.
 The Erichsen cupping test for titanium alloy(Ti-6Al-4V) sheet is simulated using Abaqus
to check the formability of the sheet.According to erichsen cupping test, crack is
supposed to appear at the peak load followed by drop in the load. So the maximum stress
induced of 1278.9MPa corresponding to displacement of 5.1mm was found.
 The finite element simulation of three point bending test for welded titanium alloy is
carried out using Abaqus. The angle until which specimen can be sharply bent without
cracking at the tension side is found to be 39º. Due to the good spring back property,
specimen found recovery of 22º.

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