Make two beams work together in Abaqus

[alima2065]

I want to model concrete beams in Abaqus explicit that doesn't support *Rebar . I also cannot use solid or shell elements due to the scale of the structure.
I chose to create 2 beam elements for each part ( a beam with a rectangular section for concrete and an I-section beam with a near-zero web to model rebar by flanges).

What do you think about this solution? How can I connect these two beams to work together and consider the composite effect in RC members?
If I use the same mesh configuration for two beams and tie all corresponding nodes, does it mean they work in parallel?
Best regards,
Ali

 

[FEA way]

I'd rather adjust the material properties of a single beam to account for the presence of rebar. Your approach is risky but interesting. Use tie constraint and give it a try. Just make some simple tests that you can verify to make sure that it works properly before implementing this in your actual model.

 

[alima2065]

Thank you for the reply. Adjusting the material properties for a linear analysis could be an option; however, I am trying to model the nonlinear behavior of concrete and steel. I will follow your advice regarding verification but is there any built-in feature in Abaqus to generate beam elements with shared nodes to avoid mass tie definition. I know that I can modify the input file but any GUI approach?

 

[FEA way]

Tie constraint will likely be necessary. Equation constraint could also work but it requires even more effort to define. If you have a lot of beams to connect this way, consider using Python scripting to quickly assemble the beams so that they are colinear and define tie constraints between them.