September’s webinar is entitled ‘Plug-ins and Python scripting in Abaqus’. It will be held on the 25th of September.

Scripting is the easiest way to automate all the repetitive tasks. There is number of reasons why someone would like to avoid doing everything manually. Number one of course is that doing things manually is boring. However, there are far more important reasons to create scripts. From an engineering point of view, the most important attribute of our work is quality and reliability. Scripts always perform tasks the same way and that gives users confidence that any mistake will not sneak into.

As a consultancy company, we regularly receive geometry files from external parties. Typically this geometry isn’t ideal for simulation purposes: it includes details that are not of importance for the analysis, while they will negatively impact meshing and simulation time. Therefore, it is beneficial to remove some of the features from the geometry (defeature it) for simulation purposes.

The “Introduction to Non-Linear Analysis Workshop” on the 25th of September is a free ONLINE event for anyone who has some experience of simulation and FEA, but would like to look at extending the scope of the work they do. This workshop is an ideal way to understand what advanced simulation and SIMULIA Abaqus can offer, and find out how easy it actually is to perform a real world non-linear analysis.

In this blog post, we will be demonstrating the material calibration capabilities of the Material Calibration App, available through the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Two different materials will be calibrated against input test data, in order to attain their material parameters, necessary for finite element analyses. The resulting material models will include hyperelastic and  linear/non-linear viscoelastic behavior.

This post will also highlight some of the exclusive material calibration capabilities of the Material Calibration App.

As you may have noticed, we're working on kind of a series of blogs on the simulation of different production techniques. This time, we will look at roll forming.

Roll forming

During the roll forming process, a long strip of sheet metal is continuously bent into the desired cross-section. The strip passes through a number of sets of rollers, where each set performs a part of the total desired bend, until the final profile is obtained.

In this blog we will discuss the process to determine movement of bodies due to a fluid flow, performed with XFlow CFD. As an example we have taken a historic measurement device called a "Wildse Vaan".

In this blog post, we will be discussing about metal tube hydroforming with Abaqus. We will be using forming limit diagrams to create the material's strain envelope, for avoiding necking (rupture), a possible failure mode, in this type of metal forming process. This will be demonstrated in a hydroforming process simulation of a metal bellows joint.

Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mould, and trimmed to create a usable product (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoforming). Often a vacuum and maybe even a plug is used to help the sheet take the shape of the mould.

July’s webinar will present the analysis types available in Abaqus, for evaluating the structural response under buckling, post buckling and collapse.

Buckling is the sudden collapse of a structural member under axial compressive loading. The importance of accurately predicting buckling loads during design is paramount, since these loads are on most occasions lower than the ultimate compressive loads of the particular member. The non-linear character of this failure type, imposes a modelling and convergence challenge.

This weeks blog is about hydrofoiling. One of my personal hobbies is watersports. I love sailing, windsurfing, wakeboarding and other challenging water related balance-sports. Normally I spend my summer in a warm country along the sea, or at least close to it. Due to Covid-19 we will stay in our own country this year, but there is still plenty sea along the shore of Holland. During the lockdown period, I watched some videos during the evening-hours on youtube where hydrofoiling is done for windsurfing & kitesurfing. Although I have never done it myself yet, it seemed a very cool thing to start trying out this summer. Being a Simulation addict, I first wanted to get an impression how dificult this is by virtually assessing the concept of it by use of SIMULIA XFlow CFD.