How to conduct a successful Steel Girder bridge simulation in Abaqus?

[Mohamed Zied]

I just start to build the model for a steel bridge in Abaqus. The bottom and top flange have variable thicknesses while the web thickness is constant all along the girder. I tried to create the parts with solid and shell shapes but still, the job can not run properly.
Is there anyone who succeeded to build a steel girder bridge model?
What do you recommend: create different parts (top and bottom flanges and web) separately and then connect them or create I shaped parts and attribute thickness to each part connect them using tie constraint?
Here is an example of thicknesses variation in one girder.

 

[FEA way]

Can you attach some pictures showing solid and shell models that you made ? What’s wrong with these analyses ? It should be possible to model such bridge using single solid/shell part for each girder.

 

[Mohamed Zied]

Thank you very much for your answer. Actually, I created many parts not a single one. As you can see in the attached picture, the top and bottom flange have different thicknesses. So, I created a part for each corresponding thickness. Then, I merge them all in a single part which represents a girder. For now, I am just conducting the analysis for one girder.

Here is an example of the errors I had:
Error in job Job-2: THE ELEMENT BASED SURFACE ASSEMBLY_SURF-1 HAS A MIXTURE OF 3D SHELL EDGES AND OTHER TYPES OF UNDERLYING ELEMENTS. IF A SURFACE HAS ANY 3D SHELL EDGES THEN ALL OF ITS FACETS MUST BE 3D SHELL EDGES.
Error in job Job-2: Normal cannot be computed in 4 elements. The nodal coordinates may be incorrect or the element aspect ratio may exceed 1000 to 1. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemNormal.
Error in job Job-2: The geometry of 2 elements is too distorted. Check the nodal coordinates or node numbering on elements identified in element set ErrElemDistorted.
Error in job Job-2: The area of 2 elements is zero, small, or negative. Check coordinates or node numbering, or modify the mesh seed. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemAreaSmallNegZero.
Error in job Job-2: Error in defining normal to the element surface at a node in 4 elements. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemShellNormal.
Job Job-2: Analysis Input File Processor aborted due to errors.
Error in job Job-2: Analysis Input File Processor exited with an error.
Job Job-2 aborted due to errors.