Products: ABAQUS/Standard ABAQUS/Explicit
Benefits: Mesh-independent fasteners can now be modeled using connector elements. Using connector elements as the basis for a point-to-point connection allows for very complex behavior to be modeled with fasteners. Like other uses of connector elements, the connection can be fully rigid or can allow for unconstrained relative motion in local connector components. In addition, deformable behavior can be specified using a connector behavior definition that can include the effects of elasticity, damping, plasticity, damage, and friction.
Description: There are two methods to define fasteners that use connector elements to model the behavior between attachment points. For both methods the fastener interaction refers to an element set containing the connector elements. You must specify a connector section definition that refers to this element set.
The most controlled approach to specifying fasteners using connector elements is to define the connector elements explicitly and associate them with an element set. The fastener interaction refers to the element set.
In the second approach you do not need to define the connector elements explicitly. The fastener interaction refers to an empty element set. In addition, you assign a reference node set containing a list of user-defined nodes to the fastener interaction. The nodes in this reference node set are used as reference points to locate the connector elements modeling the fasteners. The connector elements are given internally generated element numbers and assigned to the named element set that you specified.
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