Assignment 3

Consider a steel plate 200 mm x 200 mm square and 1 mm thick. The plate has an
elliptical hole at its center with the major axis aligned with the x-axis and the minor
axis aligned with the y-axis (see Figure). The elliptical hole has semi-major axis
length a = 2 mm and semi-minor axis length b = 1 mm. The plate is stretched by a
uniformly distributed load of 1.E+3 N/mm2 acting along its top edge as shown in the
Figure. The bottom edge is fully constrained. E for steel is 2E+5 N/mm 2 and ν =.3.
Solve this problem using ABAQUS/Standard. Use plane stress elements to model the
plate. We are interested in stress concentrations which occur at the edge of the hole.
Typically for this sort of an application a graded mesh is necessary – this allows fine
meshing in the neighbourhood of the hole and a relatively coarse mesh in the far field.
Describe any special meshing scheme you used to achieve this. Check for convergent
solutions and describe how you did so. What are the stresses at locations at (a, 0), (-a,
0), (0, b), (0, -b). Where is the stress maximum? Do a path plot in ABAQUS of the
maximum principal stress along the X and Y axis, taking care to show the location
and magnitude of the maximum values along the path.