ABAQUS is a suite of powerful engineering simulation programs, based on the finite element method, that can solve problems ranging from relatively simple linear analyses to the most challenging nonlinear simulations. ABAQUS contains an extensive library of elements that can model virtually any geometry. It has an equally extensive list of material models that can simulate the behavior of most typical engineering materials including metals, rubber, polymers, composites, reinforced concrete, crushable and resilient foams, and geotechnical materials such as soils and rock. Designed as a general-purpose simulation tool, ABAQUS can be used to study more than just structural (stress/displacement) problems. It can simulate problems in such diverse areas as heat transfer, mass diffusion, thermal management of electrical components (coupled thermal-electrical analyses), acoustics, soil mechanics (coupled pore fluid-stress analyses), and piezoelectric analysis.

ABAQUS is simple to use even though it offers the user a wide range of capabilities. The most complicated problems can be modeled easily. For example, problems with multiple components are modeled by associating the geometry defining each component with the appropriate material models. In most simulations, even highly nonlinear ones, the user need only provide the engineering data such as the geometry of the structure, its material behavior, its boundary conditions, and the loads applied to it. In a nonlinear analysis ABAQUS automatically chooses appropriate load increments and convergence tolerances. Not only does it choose the values for these parameters, it also continually adjusts them during the analysis to ensure that an accurate solution is obtained efficiently. The user rarely has to define parameters for controlling the numerical solution of the problem.