A seam defines an edge or a face in your model that is originally closed but can open during an analysis. ABAQUS/CAE places overlapping duplicate nodes along a seam when the mesh is generated. A seam cannot extend along the boundaries of a part and must be embedded within a face of a two-dimensional part or within a cell of a solid part. After you create a seam, you can determine its crack properties using a contour integral analysis. Because a seam modifies the mesh, you cannot create a seam on a dependent part instance. A seam is not a surface, and you cannot specify which side of the seam is positive or negative. As a result, you cannot apply a load or a boundary condition to a seam.

Figure 20–12 shows a seam on the face of a planar part and the effect of applying a tensile load to the model. The duplicate nodes along the seam are independent of each other and are free to move.

Figure 20–13 shows a similar analysis of a seam embedded in a solid part. The seam was created by partitioning the solid with a sketch drawn on a datum plane.For detailed instructions, see “Creating a seam,” Section 20.1.9, .