*DISTRIBUTING

Define a distributing coupling constraint.

This option is used to define a distributing coupling constraint. It must be used in conjunction with the COUPLING option to define the reference node and coupling nodes.

This page discusses:

See Also
*COUPLING
In Other Guides
Coupling Constraints

ProductsAbaqus/StandardAbaqus/ExplicitAbaqus/CAE

TypeModel data

LevelPartPart instanceAssembly

Abaqus/CAEInteraction module

Optional parameters

COUPLING

This parameter controls whether the rotation of the cloud nodes participates in translational coupling constraints for the reference node.

Set COUPLING=CONTINUUM (default) to couple the displacement and rotation of the reference node to the displacement (but not rotation) of the cloud nodes within the influence radius.

Set COUPLING=STRUCTURAL to couple the displacement and rotation of the reference node to the displacement and rotation of the cloud nodes within the influence radius. This parameter value is available only in three-dimensional analyses.

FREE NODES

This parameter applies only to Abaqus/Standard analyses.

Set this parameter equal to the treatment method for nodes that are not part of any user-defined element but are part of cloud nodes. The default if this parameter is omitted is FREE NODES=ALLOW.

Set FREE NODES=ALLOW to allow the unattached nodes.

Set FREE NODES=ERROR to treat unattached nodes as a user error.

Set FREE NODES=REMOVE to remove the unattached nodes.

ROTATIONAL COUPLING

This parameter applies only to Abaqus/Standard analyses.

This parameter controls whether the rotation of the cloud nodes participates in rotational coupling constraints for the reference node.

Set ROTATIONAL COUPLING=CONTINUUM to couple the rotation of the reference node to the displacement (but not rotation) of the cloud nodes within the influence radius.

Set ROTATIONAL COUPLING=STRUCTURAL (default) to couple the rotation of the reference node to the displacement and rotation of the cloud nodes within the influence radius.

WEIGHTING METHOD

Set this parameter equal to the weighting method to modify the default weight distribution at the coupling nodes. The default if this parameter is omitted is WEIGHTING METHOD=UNIFORM.

Set WEIGHTING METHOD=UNIFORM to select a uniform weight distribution equal to 1.0.

Set WEIGHTING METHOD=LINEAR to select a linear decreasing weight distribution with distance from the reference node.

Set WEIGHTING METHOD=QUADRATIC to select a quadratic polynomial decreasing weight distribution with distance from the reference node.

Set WEIGHTING METHOD=CUBIC to select a cubic polynomial monotonic decreasing weight distribution with distance from the reference node.

Data lines to specify the degrees of freedom to be constrained

First line

  1. First degree of freedom constrained. See Conventions for a definition of the numbering of degrees of freedom in Abaqus. If this field is left blank, all degrees of freedom will be constrained.

  2. Last degree of freedom constrained. If this field is left blank, the degree of freedom specified in the first field will be the only one constrained.

  3. Only rotational degrees of freedom can be released. All available translational degrees of freedom are constrained. If the user specifies one or more rotation degrees of freedom but not all available translational degrees of freedom, Abaqus will issue a warning message and add all available translational degrees of freedom to the constraint.

Repeat this data line as often as necessary to specify constraints for different degrees of freedom. When the ORIENTATION parameter is specified on the associated COUPLING option, the degrees of freedom are in the referenced local system in the initial configuration; otherwise, they are in the global system. In either case these directions will rotate with the reference node in large-displacement analyses (when the NLGEOM parameter is included on the STEP option).