1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

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Converting Engineering
Stress-Strain to True Stress-
Strain in Abaqus
Posted by
Nikolaos Mavrodontis on Oct 9, 2017 2:41:42 PM

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This blog focuses on the difference between Engineering

Stress-Strain and True Stress-Strain. Furthermore we will
explain how to convert Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress
Strain from within Abaqus. Abaqus offers many possibilities with
respect to material modelling. Apart from including elastic
properties, also various options are offered for modelling of
plasticity. Usually for accurately modelling materials, relevant
testing is conducted.

Different engineering materials exhibit different behaviors/trends

under the same loading regime.

More traditional engineering materials such as concrete under

tension, glass metals and alloys exhibit adequately linear stress-
strain relations until the onset of yield (point up to which
materials recover their original shape upon load removal)
whereas other more modern materials (e.g. rubbers, polymer)
exhibit non-linear stress-strain relations directly upon being
loaded externally.

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

Additionally with respect to their behavior in the plastic region

(region in which even after load removal some permanent
deformations shall remain), different stress-strain trends are
noted. Brittle materials usually fracture(fail) shortly after yielding-
or even at yield points- whereas alloys and many steels can
extensively deform plastically before failure. The characteristics
of each material should of course be chosen based on the
application and design requirements.

In order to model material behaviors, usually stress-strain

curves are produced as a result of testing. The type of test
conducted should be relevant to the type of loading that the
material will endure while in service.

A relevant test that focuses on stress-strain curve output is the

uniaxial tension test. A typical stress-strain of a ductile steel is
shown in the figure below. The stress and strain shown in this
graph are called engineering stress and engineering strain
respectfully. They correlate the current state of the steel
specimen with its original undeformed natural state (through
initial cross section and initial length).

The Yield point can be clearly seen as well as the plastic region
and fracture point (when the specimen breaks).

Within the plastic region two sub-regions are distinguished, the

work hardening region and the necking region. These two
regions are separated by the Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS)
point of the material, representing the maximum tension stress
that the specimen can withstand.

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

In Abaqus (as in most fea software) the relevant stress-strain

data must be input as true stress and true strain data
(correlating the current deformed state of the material with the
history of previously performed states and not initial undeformed
ones).

Analytical equations do exist for converting these information.

Additionally Abaqus offers extra tools for automating these
conversions as well as for calculating certain material properties
directly from test data sets.

The analytical equations for converting engineering stress/strain

to true stress/strain can only be used until the UTS point
(conversion validity shown in Figure). The necking phenomenon
that follows prohibits the use of these equations.

The analytical equations for converting engineering stress-strain

to true stress-strain are given below:

In Abaqus the following actions are required for converting

engineering data to true data, given that the engineering stress-
strain data is provided as a *.txt file.

1. Create a material Calibration

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

2. Create a new data set that will be

imported next

3. Read Data from textfile

Browse for and import the data set (*.txt file) while appointing
right fields on stress-strain information and selecting the nature
of the data set (in our case nominal –engineering- data)

4. Process Dataset

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After importing the engineering data, Abaqus plots the data

points.  Next we right click on the respectful data set and select
process.

5. Convert Engineering Data to True

Data
We choose convert as operation (convert from engineering data
to true data) and Abaqus creates the converted data set after
choosing the settings shown to the right. We can also plot this
information in Abaqus.

The two stress-strain curves (engineering and true) are shown in

the figure below:

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

Important note 1:

Since emphasis in this blog is given to presenting the analytical

equations mentioned above, it is reminded once again that
these are valid up to the UTS point. This is why the data
conversion within Abaqus is shown up till this point. The full
conversion of relevant data until material fracture can easily be
handled by Abaqus given that during the relevant tension test,
the instantaneous cross sectional area of the specimen is
measured so as to acquire a meaningful engineering stress-
strain relationship from UTS until fracture. This procedure in
Abaqus is exactly the same as already described.

Important note 2:

In order to include plasticity within Abaqus, the stress-strain

points past yield, must be input in the form of true stress and
logarithmic plastic strain. The logarithmic plastic strain required
by Abaqus can be calculated with the equation given below:

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The first data point must always correspond to the yield point
(yield stress, logarithmic plastic strain=0 ) and the subsequent
strains can be calculated from the equation provided above.

For the exemplary stress-strain data , the following information

must be input in Abaqus from implementing plasticity (enclosed
in red color):

In the following link you can download the excelsheet which you
can also use to do the conversion.

Conversion Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain

Are you finding challenges in modelling the necessary material

behaviour for you engineering challenge..?

Talk to one of our FEA specialists

today!

Topics:
Stress-Strain

Daniela Neagoe
10/10/2017, 8:27:37 PM

Thanks, very good explanations!

Reply to Daniela Neagoe

harsha kumarasinghe

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

10/12/2017, 11:06:53 AM

excellent one

Reply to harsha kumarasinghe

Arun Mathew
1/12/2018, 3:33:52 PM

really good article. Nicely explained...

Reply to Arun Mathew

ROMLY MATH
6/12/2018, 9:19:31 PM

Thanks. Very nice explanation.

Reply to ROMLY MATH

ahamd altayeb
9/24/2018, 2:03:34 AM

are these analytical equations differs for Rubber-like

materials ,especially that which converts engineering
strain to true one?

Reply to ahamd altayeb

Nikolaos Mavrodontis
9/24/2018, 4:42:33 PM

Hi Ahamd,

These analytical equations hold for rubberlike materials as

well. If you are looking into something more specific with
the true (Cauchy) stress and strain measures, feel free to
use them.

However if you have interest strictly on using rubberlike

material test data values as input to Abaqus, in order to
model your rubberlike material with fea, be aware that the
test data input to Abaqus should be given in pairs of “

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Engineering Stress vs Engineering Strain “, which is also

the standard output provided with rubberlike material
testing.

Reply to Nikolaos Mavrodontis

Ali Taheri
3/5/2019, 12:05:48 AM

very nice and helpful

Thank you very much

Reply to Ali Taheri

Ab Ba
4/22/2019, 8:37:23 AM

Why is the true stress and strain curve appropriate for

the numerical modeling of metal plasticity and the
engineering stress and strain curve appropriate for
nonlinear elasticity in materials such as rubber?

Reply to Ab Ba

Nikos Mavrodontis
4/23/2019, 5:04:10 PM

Thank you for your comment.

Metals behave linearly in their elastic region. In that region

true stress measures (cauchy) and nominal stress
measures are almost the same. This is based on the
assumption that strains are small (up to 5%). In the
inelastic region, those two stress measures start varying
from one another. True stress and strain are preferred for
numerical modelling of metals, as these measures are
more accurate (than nominal measures) in
defining/describing the plsatic behavior of metals, as these
measures consider the instantaneous dimensions of the
metal (which is what we need for the inelastic region=more
accurate).

For rubberlike materials however, the strains are large and

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highly non linear even under low stresses. The strains are
elastic though, meaning that the initial undeformed state of
the rubber is attained when the load is removed. In that
sense, there is no critical need for rubbers, to track their
instantaneous dimensions (which would make the true
stress measure the best candidate) since the experienced
deformations are recoverable (and can therefore be
correlated with rubber's initial, nominal dimensions).

Reply to Nikos Mavrodontis

Ahmed Tharwat
8/15/2020, 9:38:53 PM

Dear Mr. Nikos Mavrodontis

What will happen after the UTS point in Abaqus

Is UTS stress constant with increasing strain (horizontal

line)? Or UTS stress increases with increasing strain?

Best Regard,

Reply to Ahmed Tharwat

Nikos Mavrodontis
8/17/2020, 3:20:15 PM

Good day Ahmed, past the UTS point, necking will take
place. The deformation will localize. Typically the true
stress vs strain in Abaqus will show a monotonically
increasing stress for increasing strain till a point of fracture.

Regards,

Nikos Mavrodontis

Reply to Nikos Mavrodontis

Enggpro Business
1/6/2022, 3:51:16 PM

Very interesting details you have remarked, appreciate

it for posting.

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1/17/22, 4:51 PM Converting Engineering Stress-Strain to True Stress-Strain in Abaqus

Reply to Enggpro Business

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