*KINEMATIC COUPLING

Constrain all or specific degrees of freedom of a set of nodes to the rigid body motion of a reference node.

This option is used to impose constraints between degrees of freedom of a node or node set and the rigid body motion defined by a reference node. The preferred method of providing a kinematic constraint of this type is the COUPLING option used in conjunction with the KINEMATIC option.

This page discusses:

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Kinematic Coupling Constraints

ProductsAbaqus/StandardAbaqus/CAE

TypeModel data

LevelPartPart instanceAssembly

Abaqus/CAEUnsupported; this option has been superseded by coupling constraints used in conjunction with the kinematic option.

Required parameters

REF NODE

Set this parameter equal to either the node number of the reference node or the name of a node set containing the reference node. If the name of a node set is chosen, the node set must contain exactly one node.

Optional parameters

ALPHA

Set this parameter equal to the thermal expansion coefficient.

ORIENTATION

Set this parameter equal to the name given to the ORIENTATION definition (Orientations) that specifies the initial orientation of the local system in which the constrained degrees of freedom are defined.

Data lines to specify the nodes and degrees of freedom to be constrained

First line

  1. Node number or node set label.

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

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

Repeat this data line as often as necessary to specify constraints at different nodes and degrees of freedom. When the ORIENTATION parameter is specified, 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).