abaqus - connector, constraint,

[matejhu]

i am working on a model in abaqus - for metal forming - bending of tubes and profiles. I would like to connect or constraint four elements (placed in one plane around tube which is oriented perpendicular to these for elements), to a single Reference point placed in the center of the tube. I want to do that in order to achieve behaviour of 4 elements as one. in that case i could only apply load or BC to that single Ref. Point in the midle. While appliying the load or movement to this point, tube would bend, and these 4 elements would adapt its position to the local curvature of tube.

I have tried using connector assignments between 4 elements (proj. cartesian + rotation) and a coupling constraint between one of 4 elements and the MAIN reference point in the middle of the tube. But it did not converge. I also tried out different variations of combinations and it did not work as well

Do you have any ideas of how i could do this?

Kind regards

Matej

 

[akabarten]

Hi,

Is it ok for you to model these 4 elements as rigid body?
If yes, then you can set one rigid body with these 4 elements and put rigid body reference node where you want.

Any boundary conditions or loads applied to reference node will be "transfer" for your 4 elements.

Regards,
Bartosz