The names of all rigid elements begin with the letter “R.” The next characters indicate the
dimensionality of the element. For example, 2D
indicates that the element is planar; and AX,
that the element is axisymmetric. The final character represents the number of nodes in the
element.
- Rigid element library
-
The three-dimensional quadrilateral
(R3D4) and triangular
(R3D3) rigid elements are used to model
the two-dimensional surfaces of a three-dimensional rigid body. Another element—a
two-node, rigid beam element (RB3D2)—is
provided in Abaqus/Standard mainly to model components of offshore structures to which fluid drag and buoyancy
loads must be applied.
Two-node, rigid elements are available for plane strain, plane stress, and axisymmetric
models. A planar, two-node rigid beam element is also available in Abaqus/Standard and is used mainly to model offshore structures in two dimensions.
- Degrees of freedom
-
Only the rigid body reference node has independent degrees of freedom. For
three-dimensional elements, the reference node has three translational and three
rotational degrees of freedom; for planar and axisymmetric elements, the reference node
has degrees of freedom 1, 2, and 6 (rotation about the 3-axis).
The nodes attached to rigid elements have only secondary degrees of freedom. The motion
of these nodes is determined entirely by the motion of the rigid body reference node.
For planar and three-dimensional rigid elements the only secondary degrees of freedom
are translations. The rigid beam elements in Abaqus/Standard have the same secondary degrees of freedom as the corresponding deformable beam
elements: 1–6 for the three-dimensional rigid beam and 1, 2, and 6 for the planar rigid
beam.
- Physical properties
-
All rigid elements must refer to a section property.
The following applies only to Abaqus/Explicit: For the planar and rigid beam elements the cross-sectional area can be defined. For
the axisymmetric and three-dimensional elements the thickness can be defined. The
default thickness is zero. These data are required only if you apply body forces to the
rigid elements or when the thickness is needed for the contact definition.
- Formulation and integration
-
Since the rigid elements are not deformable, they do not use numerical integration
points, and there are no optional formulations.
- Element output variables
-
There are no element output variables. The only output from rigid elements is the
motion of the nodes. In addition, reaction forces and reaction moments are available at
the rigid body reference node.