Thermal fatigue simulation in CFRP - boundary conditions for the unit cell

[gianlucaelle]

Hello everyone, I am performing a termal fatigue simulation on a 2D unit cell of composite material. I created a static,general step and, as predefined field, I inserted the temperature cycles (100 steps, each of them alternatively associated with max/min temperature of the cycle). The crack is derived from Interaction-XFEM method.

My question is: how to enforce the boundary conditions at the edges of the cell?

If I run the simulation with erroneus BC (just to try if the program works), I get as a result an almost totally cracked domain and the job interrupts because "Time increment required is less than the minimum specified". I am quite new to Abaqus, and I would really appreciate any suggestion.

Here's a link to the CAE file:

http://speedy.sh/JH5PC/2D-crack-initiation-unit-cell-with-temperature-trials.cae