maximum spring rotation/displacement

[stevengrass]

good evening,
i'm an Italian engineer and this is my first time working with Abaqus. My question is the following:

I've inserted a torsional spring between two points in my model.
It seems to be working. The problem is that I'd like the spring to have a maximum rotation value after which it should stop working, behaving as a rigid connection... (like a common longitudinal spring that stops working after it gets totally compressed).
could anyone help me?

thank you in advance
Stefano

 

[TERIO]

I don't the exact method but I think you should be able to define a spring with a nonlinear moment-rotation curve. Then just define the curve so that at the desired rotation it becomes much stiffer.

 

[akabarten]

Hello,

You can also try to use connector element (HINGE or CYLINDRICAL) with *CONNECTOR STOP or *CONNECTOR LOCK option.

Regards,
Bartosz

 

[stevengrass]

dear all,
first of all i'd like to thank you for the answers!

I've tried to do 2 things but I still have problems...:

1) I've tried to modify the linear spring directly from the INP file, inserting a non linear behaviour but it does not work. Maybe I wrote the non linear behaviour in the INP file in a uncorrect way or maybe Abaqus/CAE does not support non linear springs (even if inserted in the INP file)? If non linear springs are supported could anyone send me a file INP as an example?

2) I've tried to use a Hinge connector but it does not work. Even the constrained CERM don't seem to be working...infact the two part i link with the connector remain independent and not linked I cannot understand why. Do the two extreme points of the connector have to be Reference Point? the only thing i notice is that in my case the two points have been also used for a partition of the part...but I don't know if this is important..

thank you again
Stefano