Creating Spring Connection Properties

A spring connection property is a flexible link that fastens two part bodies together. Since part bodies can be meshed independently, spring connection properties are designed to handle incompatible meshes. Spring connection properties also take into account the elastic deformability of the interfaces.

The support for a spring connection property is a general analysis connection defined in Abaqus for CATIA V5. When creating a spring connection property, you can use only general analysis connections that join one point to another point—connections that include a face or an edge are not allowed. If the general analysis connection uses the same vertex for both points, Abaqus for CATIA V5 assumes that the spring connects the vertex to ground. Table 6–7 summarizes the connections that can be used to define a spring connection in Abaqus for CATIA V5.

Table 6–7 Spring connection properties.

Assembly Design WorkbenchAbaqus for CATIA V5
Coincidence ConstraintContact ConstraintGeneral Analysis Connection
  

You can use spring connection properties to model actual physical springs and idealizations of axial or torsional components. You can model axial springs whose force acts only along the length of the spring or general springs where you define the spring stiffness associated with each linear and rotational degree of freedom. For each spring type you can choose a linear, constant stiffness definition or enter tabular stiffness data corresponding to the relative displacement of the spring.

You can request history output of relative displacements and rotations and of total, elastic, viscous, and reaction forces and moments from a spring connection property. The support for the history output request is the connection mesh.

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

  1. Click the Spring Connection Property icon .

    The Spring Connection Property dialog box appears, and a Spring object appears in the specification tree under the Nonlinear and Thermal Properties objects set.

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

  3. In the specification tree, select a general analysis connection created previously in Abaqus for CATIA V5. The connection must join one point to another point. The connection can use the same vertex for both points, in which case Abaqus for CATIA V5 assumes that the spring connects the vertex to ground.

    The Supports field is updated to reflect your selection.

  4. Select an axial or general spring type.

  5. Select a linear or nonlinear spring definition.

  6. If you are creating a general spring, select the desired axis system.

  7. If you specified a local axis system, select a Cartesian, a Cylindrical, or a Spherical local orientation. See Using Local Coordinate Systems for more information.

  8. Enter the spring force data for the selected spring type and definition as follows:

    Axial linear springs

    Enter the axial stiffness.

    General linear springs

    Enter the directional stiffness components.

    Nonlinear springs

    Complete the table for an axial nonlinear spring—or the component tables for a general nonlinear spring—by entering the spring force and relative displacement values in ascending order of relative displacement.

  9. Click OK in the Spring Connection Property dialog box.

    A symbol representing the spring connection property appears on the corresponding faces.