Both rigid-plasticity and elastic-plasticity effects can now be modeled in connector elements in ABAQUS/Standard and ABAQUS/Explicit. Plasticity can be modeled in either connector individual components of relative motion or in a coupled fashion involving several components of relative motion simultaneously. Only nonlinear uncoupled plasticity is supported in ABAQUS/CAE. The hardening behavior can be specified in a similar fashion to metal plasticity using experimental data or precalibrated parameters. Both isotropic and kinematic hardening can be specified to define the hardening behavior after the initial yield. Multiple plasticity definitions can be specified in the same connector behavior.

Damage effects in connectors can now be modeled in ABAQUS/Explicit in either connector individual components of relative motion or in a coupled fashion involving several components of relative motion simultaneously. Only nonlinear uncoupled damage is supported in ABAQUS/CAE. Damage is initiated in a connector when a user-specified criterion is met. Force-based, relative motion-based, or relative plastic motion-based initiation criteria are available. Once damage is initiated, a user-specified damage evolution law is used to soften the connector response. Either a relative motion-based or an energy-based damage evolution law can be used. You can specify multiple competing or cumulative damage mechanisms (pairs of damage initiation criteria and damage evolution laws) in the connector, and you can choose the components of relative motion for which the response will be damaged.