Fully Coupled Thermal-Stress Analysis
Fully coupled thermal-stress analysis is needed when the stress analysis is dependent on the temperature distribution and the temperature distribution depends on the stress solution. For example, metalworking problems may include significant heating due to inelastic deformation of the material that, in turn, changes the material properties. In addition, contact conditions exist in some problems where the heat conducted between surfaces may depend strongly on the separation of the surfaces or the pressure transmitted across the surfaces (see Thermal Contact Properties). For such cases the thermal and mechanical solutions must be obtained simultaneously rather than sequentially. Coupled temperature-displacement elements are provided for this purpose in both Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit; however, each program uses different algorithms to solve coupled thermal-stress problems.