ABAQUS input file (.inp) writer

A package for writing the ABAQUS input files directly using julia interface.

ABAQUS is a general-purpose computational tool to perform finite element analysis, but this package is designed (at least now) to analyse certain classes of problems.

At present, .inp files are wrritten for the following applications

• Homgenization of RVE with the following features
  • Periodic boundary conditions
  • Fibres with cross-sections as supported by UnitCellModelling.jl

Installation

Before starting installation, ensure that julia is added to the path. To check this, execute julia in terminal or command prompt. If you get any error, then julia is not added to path properly. You can follow these steps for adding julia to the path.

From command prompt run install_maif.jl as

julia install_maif.jl

This will install the all the necessary packages and MakeAbaqusInputFile.jl at the end.

Note: If you want to use different gmsh, please change accordingly in install_maif.jl file. But, it is recommended to keep it unchanged as in some version, we found that mesh periodicity is failing.

Tutorial

See tutorials directory at the root of this package. For example, ABAQUS input file for homogenization of fibre-reinforced composites using 3D RVE can be prepared using /tutorials/RVE_3D/prep_inp_file.jl.

using MakeAbaqusInputFile

include("/tutorials/RVE_3D/rve_inp_options.jl")

incl_data = Dict("CIRCLE" => [0.0 0.0 0.25])

bbox = (-0.5, -0.5, -0.1, 0.5, 0.5, 0.1,)

write_3D_rve_inp(
    bbox, 
    incl_data;
    options=INP_FILE_OPTIONS
)

write_3D_rve_inp() takes the following arguments

• bbox bounding box of RVE as Tuple of six Float64 values. It should be in the form of (x_min, y_min, z_min, x_max, y_max, z_max).

• incl_data is a Julia dictionary wherein key-value pairs are of String and Matrix{Float64} type. Keys is a fibre cross-section shape identifier and values are inclusion's positional information. The following table lists the possible shape identifiers and theur values.

  Inclusion shape Identifier	Data Matrix Representation	Data matrix shape
  CIRCLE	[x | y | radius]	(n, 3)
  CAPSULE	[x | y | \theta | smjx | smnx]	(n, 5)
  ELLIPSE	[x | y | \theta | smjx | smnx]	(n, 5)
  RECTANGLE	[x | y | \theta | smjx | smnx | c_radius]	(n, 6)
  CSHAPE	[x | y | \theta | ro ri | alpha]	(n, 6)
  RPOLYGON	[x | y | \theta | side_len | c_radius | num_sides]	(n, 6)
  NLOBE	[x | y | \theta | ro | lobe_radius | num_lobes]	(n, 6)
  nSTAR	[x | y | \theta | ro | rb | rt | rbf | num_tips]	(n, 8)

  Note: smjx and smnx are semi-major and semi-minor axes lengths. Will update the complete details of geometries soon.

• options is a Julia dictionary. Here, INP_FILE_OPTIONS is defined in rve_inp_options.jl that is placed in the same directory as prep_inp_file.jl. INP_FILE_OPTIONS contains user options which overwrite the default options. Detailed explainations of each options is provided as comment in the same file. Change the values in this copy of options as you want in your case. If you have messed up this user options file while editing, you can get a fresh copy of default options here.

ToDO

• Improvise the documentation
• Add provision for writing .bat or .sh files to automate running with abaqus