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C.3 Assigning section properties to the hinge part

The process of assigning section properties to a part is divided into three tasks:

  • Creating a material.

  • Creating a section that includes a reference to the material.

  • Assigning the section to the part or to a region of the part.


C.3.1 Creating a material

You will create a material named Steel that has a Young's modulus of 209 GPa and a Poisson's ratio of 0.3.

To define the material:

  1. In the Model Tree, double-click the Materials container to create a new material.

    The Edit Material dialog box appears.

  2. Name the material Steel.

  3. From the editor's menu bar, select MechanicalElasticityElastic.

    ABAQUS/CAE displays the Elastic data form.

  4. In the respective fields in the Elastic data form, type a value of 209.E9 for Young's modulus and a value of 0.3 for Poisson's ratio.

  5. Click OK to exit the material editor.


C.3.2 Defining a section

Next, you will create a section that includes a reference to the material Steel.

To define the section:

  1. In the Model Tree, double-click the Sections container to create a section.

    The Create Section dialog box appears.

  2. In the Create Section dialog box:

    1. Name the section SolidSection.

    2. In the Category list, accept Solid as the default selection.

    3. In the Type list, accept Homogeneous as the default selection, and click Continue.

    The section editor appears.

  3. In the editor:

    1. Accept Steel as the material selection.

      If you had defined other materials, you could click the arrow next to the Material text box to see a list of available materials and to select the material of your choice.

    2. Accept the default value for Plane stress/strain thickness, and click OK.


C.3.3 Assigning the section

You will now assign the section SolidSection to the hinge part.

To assign the section to the hinge part:

  1. In the Model Tree, expand the Hinge-hole item underneath the Parts container and double-click Section Assignments in the list that appears.

  2. Drag a rectangle around the hinge piece to select the entire part.

    ABAQUS/CAE highlights all the regions of the part.

  3. Click mouse button 2 to indicate that you have finished selecting the regions to be assigned the section.

    The Edit Section Assignment dialog box appears containing a list of existing sections. SolidSection is selected by default since there are no other sections currently defined.

  4. In the Edit Section Assignment dialog box, accept the default selection of SolidSection, and click OK.

    ABAQUS/CAE assigns the section to the part and colors the entire part aqua to indicate that the region has a section assignment.