To create or edit damage behavior:

Display the connector section editor using one of the following methods:

To create a new connector section, follow the procedure outlined in “Creating connector sections,” Section 15.11.6.

To edit an existing connector section, select ConnectorSectionManager from the main menu bar, select the connector section from the list that appears, and click Edit.

In the Edit Connector Section dialog box, do one of the following:

To define a new damage behavior, click Add and select Damage from the menu that appears.

To edit an existing damage behavior, select the behavior from the Behavior Options list to display the associated data fields for that behavior.

In the Coupling field, choose one of the following:

Choose Uncoupled to specify damage criteria for each available component of relative motion independently.

Choose Coupled to specify damage criteria that couple all or some of the available components of relative motion.

If you are defining uncoupled damage behavior, toggle on the forces or moments that are consistent with the available components of relative motion for which you are defining damage behavior in the Force/Moment field. If the behavior is the same for multiple components, you can define a single damage behavior that will use this one function. If the behavior is different for multiple components, you must define separate damage behaviors.

Choose the Initiation criterion.

Choose Force to specify the damage initiation criterion in terms of forces/moments in the connector. You provide the lower (compression) limit, the upper (tension) limit, or both limits for the force/moment damage initiation values.

Choose Motion to specify the damage initiation criterion in terms of relative constitutive displacements/rotations in the connector. You provide the lower (compression) limit, the upper (tension) limit, or both limits for the constitutive displacement/rotation damage initiation values.

Choose Plastic motion to specify the damage initiation criterion in terms of an equivalent relative plastic motion in the connector. You provide the relative equivalent plastic displacement/rotation at which damage will be initiated as a function of the relative equivalent plastic rate. You must also specify a plasticity behavior option; see “Defining plasticity,” Section 15.15.6, for more information.

If you are defining coupled damage behavior, you must specify a connector potential as follows:

If you selected Force or Motion as the Initiation criterion, you must specify a connector potential to define an equivalent force magnitude or an equivalent motion magnitude. Select the Initiation Potential tabbed page, and define at least one force potential term. For more information, see “Specifying potential terms,” Section 15.15.15.

If you selected Plastic motion as the Initiation criterion, you must specify a connector potential in a coupled connector plasticity behavior option to define an equivalent relative plastic motion. To define coupled connector plasticity behavior using a force potential, see “Defining plasticity,” Section 15.15.6.

If the coupled plasticity definition includes at least two terms in the force potential, you can provide the Mode-Mix Ratio in the data table on the Initiation tabbed page of the damage behavior option to reflect the relative weight of the first two terms in their contribution to the potential. See “Mode-mix ratio” in “Connector plastic behavior,” Section 25.2.6 of the ABAQUS Analysis User's Manual, for information on how this quantity is defined.

To define the damage initiation criterion, do the following on the Initiation tabbed page:

To define a damage initiation criterion that depends on temperature or field variables:




Toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define behavior data that vary with temperature. A column labeled Temp appears in the data table.

To define behavior data that depend on field variables, click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables. Field variable columns appear in the data table.

Enter the appropriate damage initiation criterion data in the table. You can enter data into the table using the keyboard. Alternatively, you can click mouse button 3 anywhere in the table to view a list of options for specifying tabular data. For detailed information on each option, see “Entering tabular data,” Section 3.2.7.

If desired, define the damage evolution law that specifies how the damage variable evolves, as described in “Defining damage evolution,” Section 15.15.8.

Select one of the following:

If you want to continue defining behaviors, click Add, select the desired behavior, and continue the connector section definition. For instructions on defining other behaviors, see “Using the connector section editors,” Section 15.15.

If you want to view or edit an existing behavior, select it from the Behavior Options list. For instructions on editing behaviors, see “Using the connector section editors,” Section 15.15.

If you want to save your connector section definition and exit the editor, click OK.