Solid Modeling & Analysis Lab.

Course No. ME494, Final Year Mechanical Engineering

Finite Element Analysis

using
Abaqus®
Working tutorial with two dimensional structural problem which will serve to be the
basis of familiarization and working on Abaqus®

Dr. Azhar Jamil

Department of Mechanical Engineering
ZHCET, AMU, Aligarh
Problem Description
Problem 1

Construct a FEA model using ABAQUS® of a simply supported prismatic beam of

length 200 mm, thickness 5 mm and width in z-direction 1 mm is acted by a point
load at middle of the span having a magnitude 50 N acting downwards. Beam is made
up of Steel having Modulus of Elasticity E = 210 GPa and Poisson’s ratio ν = 0.3.
Evaluate the maximum deflection of the beam. Validate your results using the
classical beam theory for evaluating maximum deflection of a simply supported beam.

Consequent problems will be uploaded shortly (Without Solution)

(This working tutorial will serve to be the basis of familiarization and working on
Abaqus®), thereby completing the syllabus of the lab.

Students are required to follow this problem and submit a complete report (of all the
problems in pdf format on email) elaborating with the steps, results and conclusions.

Link for downloading ABAQUS® Student Edition

https://academy.3ds.com/en/software/abaqus-student-edition
ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 2
Part
Creation of Part
1. Open Part Module
2. Create 2D Planar Part
3. Make 200 x 5 mm beam in the
sketcher
4. Create Part

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 3

Part
Creation of Part
1. Make mid-span sketch
2. Create mid-span partition
3. This is utilysed for creating
the point load in the middle
of the span.

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 4

Property
Material Properties
1. Create Material
2. Input Elastic Isotropic
Properties
3. Material Created

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 5

Property
Material Properties
1. Create Section
2. Select Solid Homogeneous section
3. Use Default Plane Stress/strain
Thickness equal to unity.
4. Section Created

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 6

Property
Material Properties
1. Assign Section by selecting
geometry (Highlighted in Red)
2. Select Default Parameters
3. Assign Thickness from Section
4. Property module completed
with the geometry colour
changing to Green.

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 7

Assembly
Assembling the Part
1. Create Instance
2. Select Default Parameters
3. Select Dependent Instance
Type
4. Instance Created

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 8

Step
Step Module
1. Create Step
2. Select Static General (Representing Quasi Static Analysis)
3. Select Defaults with NLGEOM set to OFF
4. Continue with OK

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 9

Step
Field & History Output
1. Set the Default Field Output
2. Set the Default History Output
3. Continue with OK

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 10

Load & Boundary Conditions
Creation of Load
1. Create Load
2. Apply on the load point at the
middle span of the beam (Red Dot)
3. Continue with DONE

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 11

Load & Boundary Conditions
Creation of Load

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 12

Load & Boundary Conditions
Creation of Boundary Conditions
1. Create Boundary Conditions BC corresponding to simply supported beam
2. Apply on the BC1 at the on end of the span of the beam (Red Dot)
3. Continue with DONE

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 13

Load & Boundary Conditions
Creation of Boundary Conditions

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 14

Load & Boundary Conditions
Creation of Boundary Conditions
1. Create Boundary Conditions BC corresponding to simply supported beam
2. Apply on the BC2 at the on the other end of the span of the beam
3. Continue with DONE

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 15

Load & Boundary Conditions
Final Boundary Conditions

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 16

Mesh
Creation of Mesh
1. Assign Structured Mesh Control using Mesh Control

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 17

Mesh
Creation of Mesh
1. Structured Mesh Control depicted with Green Colour

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 18

Mesh
Creation of Mesh
1. Assign Seeds (Due to student edition nodes cannot be more than 1000)
2. Take Global Seed Size = 1

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 19

Mesh
Creation of Mesh
1. Assign Plane Stress Elements with Reduced Integration(CPS4R)
2. Keep rest of the things as Default

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 20

Mesh
Creation of Mesh
1. Mesh the Part with the assigned element type

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 21

Job
1. Create Job
2. Assign Default conditions for the rest
3. Submit the Analysis

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 22

Job
1. Create Job
2. Assign Default conditions for the rest
3. Submit the Analysis

Click on Results and see the Final Results of the Analysis

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 23

Visualization
1. Open contour plot (By Default it is show Von Mises Stress Distribution.
2. Change it to Displacements U wit suboptin U2 highlighted in Red.
3. Obtain Maximum Deflection δ = 3.97mm highlighted in Yellow.

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 24

Result Validation
Analytical Calculations
Maximum deflection of a simply supported beam is given by:
𝑃𝐿3
𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
48𝐸𝐼
Where, E is the modulus of elasticity & I is moment of inertia

Here, P = 50N
L = 200mm
t = 5mm
B = 1mm
E = 210GPa = 210000 MPa

I i.e. moment of inertia for a prismatic beam is given by:

𝐵𝑡 3 1 × 53
𝐼 = = 𝑚𝑚4 = 10.417 𝑚𝑚4
12 12

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 25

Result Validation
Analytical Calculations
Therefore, maximum deflection of a simply supported beam is given by:

𝑃𝐿3 50 × (200)3
𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 = = 𝑚𝑚
48𝐸𝐼 48 × 210000 × 10.417
= 3.809 𝑚𝑚

Comparison of Results
Quantity Abaqus® Analytical % Error Remark

This overestimation is due

Maximum to the course mesh size and
Deflection 3.97mm 3.809mm 4.2% with finer mesh better
(Overestimation) comparison may be
𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥
achieved

ME494 Solid Modelling and Analysis 26