The anneal procedure is intended to simulate the relaxation of stresses and plastic strains that occurs as metals are heated to high temperatures. Physically, annealing is the process of heating a metal part to a high temperature to allow the microstructure to recrystallize, removing dislocations caused by cold working of the material. During the anneal procedure ABAQUS/Explicit sets all appropriate state variables to zero. These variables include stresses, backstresses, plastic strains, and velocities. In the case of metal porous plasticity, the void volume fraction is also set to zero, such that the material becomes fully dense.
There is no time scale in an annealing step; therefore, time does not advance. The annealing process occurs instantaneously. No data are required for the anneal procedure.
For more information, see “Annealing procedure,” Section 6.11.1 of the ABAQUS Analysis User's Manual.
To configure an annealing procedure:
Display the Edit Step dialog box (see “Creating a step,” Section 14.9.2, or “Editing a step,” Section 14.9.3).
In the Description field, enter a short description of what occurs during this analysis step. ABAQUS stores the text that you enter in the output database, and the text is displayed in the state block by the Visualization module.
Select a Post-anneal reference temperature option:
Select Maintain current to maintain the current temperature at all nodes in the model after the annealing is complete.
Select Value to specify a final temperature to which all nodes in the model will be set after the annealing is complete. Enter the value in the field provided.
Click OK to close the Edit Step dialog box.