ABAQUS: Problem with generating nodes around the perimeter of a circle 1

[BorisGeorgiev93]

Hello, everyone!

I am trying to create a FE model of composite plates that contain a circular delamination region. I don't work with CAE, but only with .INP files. However, I am stuck at the stage of modelling the circular delamination. More specifically, I am struggling with the process of arranging nodes around the circumference of a circle.

Here Link points 8, 9, 10 speak about components of a normal to the circular arc. I am aware of the fact that it is necessary to use the LINE=C parameter in order to arrange the nodes around the perimeter of the circle, but I have no idea about how I have to define these components of the normal to the circular arc. Is the normal represented by a simple node, for instance with Cartesian coordinates of 0,0,1 or...?

In the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide they say the following:
Any help will be really appreciated!

Thank you in advance for the time and co-operation!

 

[BorisGeorgiev93]

Hello, again everyone!

Really, hope that somebody can give his/her expertise regarding my Abaqus issue.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Mustaine3]

Wow, ngen and elgen - that's really oldschool. Don't you have a preprocessor?

To your question:
If your normal is the positive z direction, then dataline contents 8,9 and 10 would be:
0,0,1


Here is an example:
*node
100, 5,0,0
110, -5,0,0
99, 0,0,0
**
*ngen, line=c, nset=foo
100,110, ,99,,,,0,0,1

So I want to have a half circle on the xy-plane. Normal is z. With a normal in positive z direction the half circle will be on the upper half. With a negative z normal the half circle would be on the lower half.

 

[BorisGeorgiev93]

Mustaine3,

Your help is much appreciated!!! I have managed to get the circle.

I am absolutely aware of the fact that I need the *NGEN, *NFILL and *ELGEN keywords, but I was not sure how the normal to the plane would be defined.

What do you mean by a preprocessor? I write my .INP files and then import them into Abaqus/CAE. If there is an error somewhere in the .INP file, the program displays a WARNING sentence and of course I do not see any elements/nodes (my model). So my preprocessor is Abaqus/CAE, right?

Many thanks again!