Product: ABAQUS/Standard
The JOINTC elements in ABAQUS/Standard provide for flexible joints between two nodes. This section defines the kinematic variables used in these elements.
A JOINTC element consists of two nodes, referred to here as nodes 1 and 2. Each node has six degrees of freedom: displacements and rotations . A local orientation is defined for the element by the user. In a large-displacement analysis that local system rotates with the first node of the element.
We define the local system by its unit, orthogonal base vectors, , for . Then at any time in the analysisThe relative displacements in the element are then
The relative rotation about the local 3-axis is defined as
These rotation measures define only relative angular rotations for small relative rotations. They are simple to compute, increase monotonically for relative rotations up to 180°, and are taken as suitable for use in the elements for these reasons.
The first variation of is
The relative translational velocities in the element are taken as