ABAQUS thermal stress modelling problem

[absorbentgnome]

Hi everyone, my name's Dan.

I have constucted an axissymmetic model of a steel cylinder and applied symmetry BCs along the axis and the centre plane of the cylinder. Also there are position constraints on the axis and centre plane so that the cylinder is fixed, but is allowed to expand when heated.
I am applying a simple temperature field step change to the whole cylinder.

But the model won't run. An error is not given, ABAQUS says 'look in the message file' but there isn't one.

If I constrain the axis or plane in both directions then the model will run, showing distortion of the cylinder. If I apply a small rotational force, then model will run, showing the thermal expansion.

I am a newbie to ABAQUS, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[absorbentgnome]

It gives the error 'too many attempts on this increment'.