You Try It!

Beam Impact Co-simulation

For more information (including a video demonstration),
see the associated SIMULIA e-Learning Resource
https://swym.3ds.com/#post:13030
Note that this exercise appears in several SIMULIA training classes; to learn more about
Abaqus/Standard to Abaqus/Explicit co-simulation consider attending any of the following
classes:
Abaqus/Explicit: Advanced Topics
Substructures and Submodeling with Abaqus
Crashworthiness Analysis with Abaqus
For full class descriptions and registration information visit 3DS.COM/SIMULIA
This exercise was written using Abaqus 6.12

Goals
When you complete this exercise, you will be able to:

Lock and exclude part instances

Define co-simulation interactions
Create and submit a co-execution
View co-simulation results
Include a substructure in the Abaqus/Standard portion of a co-simulation

Introduction
In this exercise you will use the Abaqus/Standard to Abaqus/Explicit co-simulation technique to
analyze a simple beam impact, shown in Figure W61. The tip of the beam, where the impact
occurs, will be modeled with Abaqus/Explicit. The root of the beam will be analyzed with
Abaqus/Standard.

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

Rigid impactor

Co-simulation region

Fixed end

Portion to be modeled
with Abaqus/Standard

Portion to be modeled
with Abaqus/Explicit
Figure W61 Flexible beam impact model

The ultimate goal of this exercise is to model the Abaqus/Standard portion of the co-simulation
using a substructure. You will first analyze the beam impact co-simulation without the
substructure. After you have studied the results of this initial co-simulation, you will modify the
model so that the Abaqus/Standard portion of the co-simulation (i.e., the beam root) is modeled
with a substructure.

Preliminaries
1. Extract the setup file required for this workshop using the abaqus fetch utility:
abaqus fetch job=ws_cosim_beamImpact.py

where abaqus is the command you use to run Abaqus.

2. Run the script ws_cosim_beamImpact.py using the following command:
abaqus cae startup=ws_cosim_beamImpact.py

The above command creates an Abaqus/CAE database named beamImpact.cae in the

current directory. This database contains a conventional model for the beam impact
named beamImpact-complete. This model analyzes the impact using Abaqus/Explicit
alone. Submit the job beamImpact-complete and animate the results. The final
deformed shape of the model is shown in Figure W62.

Figure W62 Beam impact simulation: final deformed shape

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

Co-simulation analysis without substructuring

In this section you will convert the Abaqus/Explicit beam impact analysis into a co-simulation
analysis.
1. Copy the model beamImpact-complete twice to create
a model named beamImpact-cosim-std for the Abaqus/Standard portion of
the co-simulation and
a model named beamImpact-cosim-xpl for the Abaqus/Explicit portion of the
co-simulation.
2. In the Abaqus/Standard model beamImpact-cosim-std, link the beam tip and impactor
part instances to their equivalent part instances in the Abaqus/Explicit model. Exclude
these two instances from the Abaqus/Standard analysis. Detailed instructions are
provided below:
a. In the beamImpact-cosim-std branch of the Model Tree, expand the instances
list in the Assembly container.
b. Use [Ctrl]+Click to select the instances Impactor-1 and beamTip-1.
c. Click mouse button 3 on either part instance and select Link Instances from the
menu that appears.
d. In the Linked Instances dialog box, select beamImpact-cosim-xpl as the parent
model for both instances and activate the option to exclude the child instances
from the simulation.
e. Click Link to link and exclude the instances.
Abaqus produces a warning that the parts associated with the linked instances will
also be linked.
f. Toggle off the option to show this warning the next time and click OK.
Icons appear in the Model Tree to indicate the instances have been excluded ( )
and linked ( ). The excluded instances are colored dark gray when the assembly
default color coding is used. Instances that are linked but not excluded are
colored light gray by default.
3. In the Abaqus/Explicit model beamImpact-cosim-xpl, link the part instance
representing the beam root (beamRoot-1) to its equivalent part instance in the
Abaqus/Standard model and exclude the beam root part instance from the
Abaqus/Explicit simulation.
4. In the Abaqus/Standard model beamImpact-cosim-std, replace the existing explicit
dynamic step with an implicit dynamic step (in the Model Tree, click mouse button 3 on
Step-1 and select Replace from the menu that appears). Define the step with the
following properties:
a. Time period: 0.3 s
b. Nlgeom: off (the behavior of the root of the beam is linear)
c. Maximum number of increments: 10000
d. Initial increment size: 0.01
e. Half-step residual tolerance: 50

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

5. In the Abaqus/Standard model beamImpact-cosim-std, suppress the following items

since they are applied to the excluded part instance.
Tip: To suppress an object, click mouse button 3 on the object in the Model
Tree and select Suppress from the menu that appears.
a. Suppress the beam tip history output request named H-Output-2-tip.
b. Suppress the impactor initial velocity predefined field named impactor velocity.
c. Suppress the impactor rigid body constraint named rigid body - impactor.
d. Also, suppress the tie constraint named tie beam, which ties the two halves of the
beam together for the pure Abaqus/Explicit simulation. For this simulation the cosimulation interaction will connect the two halves of the beam.
6. Similarly, suppress the following items in the Abaqus/Explicit model beamImpactcosim-xpl:
a. Suppress the boundary condition named fix end.
b. Suppress the tie constraint named tie beam.
7. In the Abaqus/Explicit model, create a lock-step type co-simulation interaction at the
Abaqus/Standard to Abaqus/Explicit interface.
a. In the beamImpact-cosim-xpl model, hide part instance beamRoot-1 (in the
Model Tree, click mouse button 3 on the instance name and select Hide from the
menu that appears).
b. In the beamImpact-cosim-xpl branch of the Model Tree, double-click
Interactions.
c. In the Create Interaction dialog box, select Step-1 as the interaction definition
step and choose Standard-Explicit Co-simulation as the interaction type. Click
Continue.
d. In the prompt area, choose Surface as the region type.
e. Select the co-simulation surface on the beamTip-1 part instance (refer to Figure
W61 if necessary). Click Done in the prompt area.
f. In the Edit Interaction dialog box, choose the incrementation option to lock the
Abaqus/Explicit and Abaqus/Standard time steps. This will force
Abaqus/Standard to use the same time increments as Abaqus/Explicit.
Note: Do NOT specify a coupling step period; this time period will dictate
the Abaqus/Explicit time increment size which could result in an unstable
Abaqus/Explicit solution if the specified increment size is too large.
g. Click OK to create the co-simulation interaction.
h. Resume visibility of part instance beamRoot-1 (in the Model Tree, click mouse
button 3 on the instance name and select Show from the menu that appears).
8. Similarly, create a lock-step type co-simulation interaction in the Abaqus/Standard
model.
9. Create a co-execution for the beam impact simulation.
a. In the Model Tree, double-click Co-executions.
b. In the co-execution editor, accept Co-execution-1 as the co-execution name.

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

c. Select beamImpact-cosim-xpl and beamImpact-cosim-std as the models to be

analyzed during the co-execution.
d. In the Precision tab, choose Double analysis only as the Abaqus/Explicit
analysis precision.
e. Click OK to create the co-execution.
10. Submit the co-execution.
a. In the Model Tree, expand the co-executions container, click mouse button 3 on
Co-execution-1, and select Submit from the menu that appears.
b. To monitor the co-simulation analysis jobs, expand the Jobs container under Coexecution-1.

Postprocessing the co-simulation results

Co-simulation analyses result in two separate output database (.odb) files, one for the
Abaqus/Explicit portion of the analysis and one for the Abaqus/Standard portion of the analysis.
The overlay plot technique can be used to view both portions of the analysis simultaneously.
11. Once the co-execution has completed, open both output database files simultaneously and
have Abaqus automatically combine them into a single overlay plot, as follows:
a. From the main menu bar, select FileOpen.
b. In the Open Database dialog box, set the file filter to Output Database.
c. Select both output database files from Co-execution-1.
d. Toggle on Append to layers.
e. Click OK.
Abaqus plots the results from Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit in a single
overlay plot.
12. Create a deformed shape plot of the results at the end of the simulation.
At this point you may notice that the beam does not line up exactly at the co-simulation
interface. With the lock-step integration scheme the displacement of the nodes on either
side of the co-simulation interface should be identical. The discrepancy is due to the fact
that nonlinear geometric effects were activated for the Abaqus/Explicit portion of the
analysis, but not the Abaqus/Standard portion. Consequently, Abaqus automatically
scales the displacement of the Abaqus/Standard portion of the analysis (so small
displacements will be visible), but not the Abaqus/Explicit portion. For the co-simulation
interface to match, the deformation scale factor for both layers should be the same.
13. Using the common plot options (Options Common), set the deformation scale factor
to a uniform value of 1.
Now both sides of the co-simulation interface line up. Note that, by default, changes to
plot options are applied to all layers simultaneously. You can view the list of overlay plot
layers and control the layer display options using the Overlay Plot Layer Manager
(ViewOverlay Plot).
14. Create a contour plot of Mises stress in the beam.
The overlay plot legend only shows the contour values for the current layer. In general,
the default contour limits will not be the same for both portions of the co-simulation.
Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

15. Use the contour options (Options Contour) to set the contour maximum to 5000 Pa
and the contour minimum to 0 Pa.
16. Animate the results.
Mises stress contours at the end of the analysis are shown in Figure W63.

Figure W63 Mises stress at the end of the impact simulation

Co-simulation analysis with a substructure

Next you will convert the Abaqus/Standard portion of the beam into a substructure. To enhance
the dynamic behavior or the substructure, you will augment its response by including some
generalized degrees of freedom associated with the dynamic modes. To do this, a frequency
extraction step must be used to determine the dynamic modes of the structure before the
substructure is generated.
17. Copy the model beamImpact-cosim-std to a model named beamImpact-subgen.
18. In the substructure generation model beamImpact-subgen, create a frequency extraction
step (this is a linear perturbation procedure) named frequency after the step named
Initial.
19. In the step editor, request 20 eigenmodes using the Lanczos eigensolver.
In this example, the nodes that will be retained during the substructure generation will be
fixed during the frequency extraction (i.e., fixed-interface eigenmodes will be used in this
substructure).
20. In the frequency extraction step, create a boundary condition to fix the co-simulation
interface end of the beamRoot-1 part instance; these nodes are included in the set
retained-nodes.
By default, this boundary condition will not be propagated to subsequent steps. This is
desirable since boundary conditions cannot be applied to retained nodes during
substructure generation.
21. Replace the implicit dynamic step with substructure generation step (this is a linear
perturbation procedure).

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

22. In the Basic tabbed page of the step editor:

Enter 1 as the substructure identifier.
Accept the default setting to evaluate the recovery matrix for the whole model so
that results within the substructure can be extracted and visualized after the
substructure is used.
23. Because the substructure will be used in a dynamic analysis, use the following settings in
the Options tabbed page of the step editor:
Toggle on Compute reduced mass matrix.
Toggle on Specify retained eigenmodes. Include all 20 extracted modes
(specified by range).
24. Rename the step to substruct-generation.
25. In the substructure generation step, apply a Retained nodal dofs boundary condition to
the set retained-nodes. Retain all of the degrees of freedom.
26. Create a job named beamImpact-subgen for the beamImpact-subgen model.
27. In the Model Tree, click mouse button 3 on the job beamImpact-subgen and select
Submit from the menu that appears.
Note: If you receive a warning that node and element label conflicts between part
instances will result in renumbering, click Yes to proceed with the job

submission.
28. Once the analysis completes, open beamImpact-subgen.odb in the Visualization
module and plot the mode shapes of the extracted eigenmodes.
Now that the substructure has been generated, you will use the substructure in the cosimulation analysis.
29. Copy the model beamImpact-cosim-std to a model named beamImpact-sub-cosimstd.
30. Import the substructure part (FileImportPart).
In the Import Part dialog box, set the file filter to Substructure and select
beamImpact-subgen_Z1.sim.
In the Create Substructure Part dialog box, name the part beamRoot-sub and
accept the default selection of beamImpact-subgen.odb as the ODB file.
31. In the model assembly, replace the instance named beamRoot-1 with an instance of the
substructure part beamRoot-sub (InstanceReplace).
32. Create a node set named subNodes containing the nodes on the interface to the explicit
dynamics model.
33. Edit the co-simulation interaction definition to use the node set defined for the
substructure nodes as the co-simulation region.
34. Suppress the boundary condition named fix end.
35. Request preselected field output so that the results will be recovered within the
substructure. Request the output at 10 evenly-spaced intervals.

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

Tip: In the Edit Field Output Request dialog box, select Substructure as the domain

and then click

. In the Select Substructure Sets dialog box that appears, expand the
list for the substructure and select Entire Substructure.
The co-simulation region type must be consistent in both the Abaqus/Standard and
Abaqus/Explicit models. Therefore, to run the co-simulation with the Abaqus/Standard
substructure, the co-simulation region for the Abaqus/Explicit portion of the model must
be based on nodes.
36. In the beamImpact-cosim-xpl branch of the Model Tree, expand the Interactions
container and double-click the co-simulation interaction.
37. In the interaction editor, click

38. In the prompt area, click Node Region as the co-simulation region type.
39. In the Region Selection dialog box, choose cosim-xpl as the node set for the cosimulation interaction (if the Region Selection dialog box is not visible, click Sets in
the prompt area).
40. In the Edit Interaction dialog box, click OK.
41. Create a co-execution for the beam impact simulation with substructures.
a. In the Model Tree, double-click Co-executions.
b. In the co-execution editor, accept Co-execution-2 as the co-execution name.
c. Select beamImpact-cosim-xpl and beamImpact-sub-cosim-std as the models
to be analyzed during the co-execution.
d. In the Precision tab, choose Double analysis only as the Abaqus/Explicit
analysis precision.
e. Click OK to create the co-execution.
42. Submit the co-execution.
43. Once the analysis completes, postprocess the results as before.
Note: Substructure results are written to their own output database files. Since the

Abaqus/Standard simulation consisted of only one substructure, you can postprocess that
substructures output database file directly. If the analysis contained more than just a
single substructure, you could use the abaqus substructurecombine utility to
combine the results of all the substructures as well as any portion of the Abaqus/Standard
simulation not modeled with substructures.

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning

Also note that if you have used a single viewport for the entire exercise, then the overlay
plot layers for this substructure co-simulation analysis will be added to those of the first
co-simulation without substructures. You can use the Overlay Plot Layer Manager
(ViewOverlay Plot) to deactivate the visibility of the results of the earlier analysis.

Additional exercises
44. Run the co-simulation with the subcycling integration scheme. Do you notice a
difference in the results? (Tip: Take a close look at the displacements at the cosimulation interface. Has some drift occurred?) What happens if you reduce the
maximum Abaqus/Standard time increment size?
45. In this example, the beam is modeled with linear solid elements. In the co-simulation
without the substructure, the Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit co-simulation
interaction regions were both surfaces. In this situation (co-simulation surface regions
defined on linear elements) the co-simulation region meshes can be dissimilar. Refine
the mesh on one of the beam halves and re-run the co-execution.
46. Modify the dimensions of the Abaqus/Standard and/or Abaqus/Explicit portions of the
beam. Observe how the linked instances are automatically updated in both the
Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit models.
47. Recreate the substructure without any retained eigenmodes, and then rerun the cosimulation. Compare the results to the original simulation. At the start of the analysis the
results of the two simulations are very similar, since it takes some time for the impactinduced stress wave to reach the Abaqus/Standard portion of the beam. However, later in
the simulation you will notice differences in the results, due to the poor dynamic response
of the substructure without any retained eigenmodes.

Note: A script that creates the complete model described in these instructions is
available for your convenience. Run this script if you encounter difficulties
following the instructions outlined here or if you wish to check your work. The
script is named
ws_cosim_beamImpact_answer.py

and is available using the Abaqus fetch utility.

Dassault Systmes, 2012

www.3ds.com/simulia-learning