O. Stephansson, L. Jing and C.-F.

Tsang (Editors)
Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes of Fractured Media
Developments in Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 79
9 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

565

ABAQUS
L. B6rgesson
Clay Technology AB, Ideon, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden

1. INTRODUCTION
ABAQUS/Standard is a general purpose finite element program designed specifically for
advanced structural and heat transfer analysis. It is designed for both nonlinear and linear stress
analysis of both very small and extremely large structures.
The element library provides a complete geometric modeling capability. Solids in one, two,
and three dimensions as well as shells, beams, pipes and pipe bends with deforming sections,
cables etc. can be modelled using first, second or third order interpolation. The multilevel
substructuring capability is another useful facility.
The material library contains several different constitutive models, e.g. linear and non-linear
elasticity, rubber, plasticity, concrete, sand, soils, acoustic etc.
ABAQUS has a built-in automatic and adaptive choice of time incrementation. This
approach provides uniform accuracy throughout the solution history and is in most cases
significantly more efficient and practical than user controlled fixed time incrementation.
The built-in postprocessor utilizes state-of-the-art interactive color graphics to present the
results as displaced shape, color fringe plots, x-y plots etc.
A wide variety of problems may be addressed with the modeling tools available within the
program. These are described below.
ABAQUS is thoroughly documented with the following manual set:
9
9
9
9

User's Manual
Theory Manual
Example Problems Manual
Verification Manual

The latest release is version 5.4

Besides ABAQUS/Standard the following modules are included in the ABAQUS software
suite:

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L. B6rgesson

ABAQUS/Explicit
It provides a complete explicit transient dynamics capability in ABAQUS that is suited for
defence applications, vehicle crash simulation, nuclear safety, high-speed metal forming etc.
The module is fully vectorized, to make best use of supercomputers.

ABAQUS/Aqua
This is a set of wave loading, drag and buoyancy calculation capabilities that may be
addressed to the ABAQUS/Standard module to provide modelling of offshore piping or cable
systems.
ABAQUS/USA
Interface that may be added to ABAQUS/Standard to allow Lockheed's Underwater Shock
Analysis to be used with ABAQUS.

ABAQUS/Pre
Interactive pre-processor for generation of complicated large 3D-geometries, properties,
loads and boundary conditions for ABAQUS.
ABAQUS is written, supported and steadily upgraded by HKS (Hibbitt, Karlsson and
Sorensen) with headquarters address:
HKS Inc.
1808 Main Street
Pawntucket, K102860-4847
USA

2. G E O M E T R Y

AND ELEMENTS

Structures and continua can be modeled. One-, two- and three-dimensional continuum
elements are provided, as well as beams, membranes, shells and infinite elements etc.
ABAQUS/Standard is a modular code: any combination of elements, each with any
appropriate material model, can be used in the same analysis.
The program includes planar, axisyrmnetric, shell and 3-D elements which have both
displacement and linear scalar field degrees of freedom. The scalar field can be temperature,
pore pressure or electric potential.
These elements are used for coupled temperature/stress problems; for effective
stress/groundwater flow problems in soil mechanics; and for piezoelectric analysis.
Any number of linear or nonlinear user defined element types may be introduced into a
model. Stif~ess or mass matrices can be specified directly for linear user elements.
Alternatively, a user subroutine may be used to define linear or nonlinear behavior for such
elements.

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3. C O N T A C T A N D I N T E R A C T I O N S
ABAQUS/Standard contains an extensive set of tools for modeling contact and interface
problems for stress analysis, heat transfer analysis, coupled stress-heat transfer cases, coupled
pore fluid-stress analysis, and coupled acoustic pressure-structural response analysis.
Contact is typically modeled by identifying surfaces which may interact and pairing them by
name. Interactions between deforming bodies or between a deforming body and a rigid body
are allowed. Both small and finite sliding may be modeled in either two or three dimensions. A
Coulomb friction model may be used for shear interaction or, for more complex response, a
user subroutine may be used to define the frictional behavior.
In certain cases, contact dements, rather than contact surfaces are used to define the
interaction between bodies.

4. F R A C T U R E M E C H A N I C S
A contour integral capability is provided for calculating fracture mechanics parameters. The
domain integral method is used to evaluate these quantities. Multiple contours around the
crack tip are extracted automatically to verify path independence of the relevant quantity. The
direction of crack growth may be defined by specifying the crack extension direction directly,
or by specifying a normal to the crack plane. If the normal is given, the crack extension
direction is determined automatically from the normal and the tangent to the crack front. There
is a crack growth procedure to model material debonding.

5. M A T E R I A L D E F I N I T I O N
Examples of different material models and capabilities:

Temperature dependence: Most material constant definitions allow temperature

dependence of the data. Most material parameters can also be made to depend on any number
of predefined field variables, such as the density of a particular phase in a multi-phase material.
Orientation option: This option is provided so that a local coordinate system may be
defined at each point for material property input and stress/strain component output. This is
particularly convenient for laminated composite shell analysis.
Elasticity: Several different definitions of elastic behavior are provided. For linear elasticity
the elastic moduli, including coefficients of thermal expansion, may be isotropic, orthotropic or
anisotropic. Hypoelasticity allows the moduli to be dependent on strain. A voided material
model is provided, in which the elastic part of the volume change depends on the logarithm of
the pressure stress. For large strain elasticity two hyperelastic models are included: a general
polynomial strain energy function (includes Mooney-Rivlin) and Ogden's model, both of which
can be used for fully incompressible or almost incompressible response. Fully incompressible
behavior is allowed through the use of hybrid (mixed displacement and pressure) elements.

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L. BOrgesson

Material constants for all large strain elasticity models may be specified directly or are
calculated by ABAQUS/Standard from user supplied test data.
Viscoelasticity: Both time domainand ~equency domain viscoelastic models are provided.
The time domain model is available for small and finite strain and uses a Prony series
representation. The Prony series constant are calculated by ABAQUS/Standard based on user
specified test data. Viscoelastic materials can be specified as thermo-rheologically simple
(TRS); the W'dliams-Landel-Ferry relationship is provided, and other TRS relationships can be
specified via a user subroutine.
Metal plasticity: Isotropic with von-Mises yield criterion; anisotropic with IT_tU's
anisotropic yield criterion. The flow role is associated (normal) flow and the hardening rules
are isotropic, kinematic and ORNL theory with perfect plasticity default. Gurson's porous
plasticity model for porous metals is available. This includes both void nucleation and strain
hardening of the matrix material.

Creep: Isotropie or anisotropic with time or strain hardening laws. Special creep laws can
be defined with a user subroutine. ABAQUS/Standard automatically switches from explicit to
implicit time stepping when the explicit time step is restricted by numerical stability
considerations, thus providing for efficient solution of long time creep problems.
Volumetric swelling" Isotropic or anisotropic volume change with time as a function of
field variables; tabular or user subroutine input.

Cam-day model: Critical state plasticity, for clay-like soils. A generalized Cam-clay model
that includes third invariant dependence in the yield definition and a "cap" on the yield surface
with respect to pressure stress, with the Cam-clay strain hardening/softening rule.
Extended Drucker-Prager modal: Provides a pressure dependent yield surface and
includes strain hardening/soi~ening, rate dependence, and with non-associated flow, for
granular materials such as sand, and for material with different yield in tension and
compression, such as polymers and cast iron.
Capped Drucker-Prager model" Combines the ingredients of the critical state model and
the extended Drucker-Prager model. It is suitable for many geotechnical applications.
Jointed material model: For analysis of jointed or faulted materials. Frictional sliding
along the joints, joint opening/closing and bulk material failure are included in the model.
Strain rate dependent plasticity: Hardening in all of the metal plasticity models as well as
the extended Drucker-Prager and crushable foam models may be rate independent or rate
dependent (visco-plastie). Rate dependent hardening data, derived from experiments, may be
defined in a simple tabular fashion and will then be interpolated directly.

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569

Concrete: Elastic-plastic-damage theory for concrete, including tension cracking,

compression crushing, concrete-rebar interaction (via tension stiffening) and post-crack
response using damaged elasticity concepts.

Permeability: Isotropic, orthotropic or fully anisotropic permeability with voids ratio and
saturation dependence. May be velocity dependent.
Acoustic medium properties: May be frequency for temperature dependent.

Thermal conductivity: Isotropic, orthotropic or fully anisotropic, temperature dependent.

Specific heat: Temperature dependent.
User materials: User subroutine UMAT allows any material model to be implemented.
ABAQUS provides for an arbitrary number of solution dependent state variables to be stored
at each material calculation point, as well as for any number of material constants to be read as
data, for use in this subroutine. This capability is very popular with many groups working on
advanced material behavior.

6. A N A L Y S I S P R O C E D U R E S
In ABAQUS/Standard, the analysis procedures can be mixed in any reasonable fashion. For
example, a single simulation may include a nonlinear static analysis followed by nonlinear
dynamics, in which case the final static solution provides the initial conditions for the dynamic
response. Another example is natural frequency extraction which may include preloading
effects due to an initial nonlinear static analysis.
In nonlinear analysis, the initial condition for each step is the state of the model at the end of
the previous step. This provides a method for following complex loading histories.
A procedure is specified within each step. Available procedures are"
9 Linear and nonlinear stress/displacement analysis.
9 Dynamic stress/displacement analysis for linear and nonlinear problems.
9 Creep and swelling analysis.
9 Transient and steady-state heat transfer analysis.
9 Natural frequency extraction.
9 Eigenvalue bucMing estimates.
9 Sequentially coupled temperature and thermal stress analysis.
9 Fully coupled, transient or steady state, temperature-displacement analysis.
9 Fully coupled acoustic-structural vibration analysis.
9 Consolidation.
9 Partially saturated flow.
9 Mass diffusion analysis.

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L. BOrgesson

7. PROCEDURES AND MODELS MADE BY C I t Y TECHNOLOGY AND

FEM-TECH
Besides the standard procedures and models included in the commercial version of
ABAQUS adaptations of these to the behavior of buffer materials have been made as well as
own procedures and models.
Thermally driven water vapor flow in water unsaturated soil is a process that has been
modelled, coded and completely coupled to the other ABAQUS processes. The process has
been modelled as a diffusion process driven by the temperature gradient.
Modified cap model. A material model for water saturated bentonite-rich buffer materials
has been formulated and coded. The model is based on the capped Drucker-Prager model but
has a curved failure envelope, a curved critical state line, and a variable Poisson's ratio.