Creating Surface Welding Connection Properties

A surface weld is modeled by an array of hexahedral connections between surfaces of two parts. The surfaces can lie on separate parts or within a single part (for example, between overlapping faces). The parts must be meshed with an incompatible mesh, and the surface weld distributes the connection between the surfaces among several nodes.

After you create a surface welding connection property, Abaqus for CATIA V5 creates a surface welding connection mesh. Table 6–24 summarizes the constraints that can be used to define a surface welding connection property in Abaqus for CATIA V5.

Table 6–24 Surface welding connection properties.

Abaqus for CATIA V5
Surface Analysis ConnectionSurface Analysis Connection Within One Part

A surface weld is modeled by a line of hexahedral connectors between surfaces. In Abaqus for CATIA V5 the connection between the surfaces is shown in Table 6–25.

Table 6–25 Surface weld.

Compatible MeshAbaqus EquivalentIncompatible MeshAbaqus Equivalent
Not supportedN/A Distributing couplings (with DOFs 1, 2, and 3 constrained) and a hexahedral element

You can request history output of relative displacements and rotations and of total, elastic, viscous, and reaction forces and moments from a surface welding connection property. The support for the history output request is the connection mesh. You must select a user material that provides the material properties (CATIA V5 or Nonlinear) of the hexahedral elements. The material must define the following:

If the material uses Nonlinear properties, either Young's modulus or the coefficient of thermal expansion can be temperature dependent but not both. For more information, see Specifying Abaqus Material Properties.

This task shows you how to create a surface welding connection property between two parts.

  1. Click the Surface Welding Connection Property icon .

    The Surface Welding Connection Property dialog box appears. A Surface Welding Connection Property object appears in the specification tree under the Properties objects set, and a Surface Welding Connection Mesh appears under the Nodes and Elements object.

  2. You can change the identifier of the surface weld connection property by editing the Name field.

  3. In the specification tree, select an existing Surface Analysis Connection object or Surface Analysis Connection within one Part object.

    The Supports field is updated to reflect your selection.

  4. Abaqus for CATIA V5 supports only Hexahedron surface welds. Click the Component Editor icon and do the following from the Surface Welding Definition dialog box that appears:

    1. From the specification tree, choose a user material with the required material properties.

    2. Specify a local coordinate system for the degrees of freedom. Local coordinate systems are defined in the CATIA Part Design workbench.

    3. Click OK to accept your changes and to close the Surface Welding Definition dialog box.

  5. Click OK in the Surface Welding Connection Property dialog box.

    Symbols representing the surface weld connection property appear at the location of the corresponding surface welding connection mesh.

  6. If necessary, double-click on the Surface Welding Connection Mesh object in the specification tree and enter the following:

    • Whether the mesh is compatible or incompatible.

    • The maximum gap between the nodes that are modeling the surface weld connection. The value is the radius of a sphere that intersects nodes on both of the parts that are being welded.

    • The spacing of the hexahedral elements.

  7. Right-click on the surface welding connection mesh object in the specification tree, and select Update Mesh from the menu that appears.