Modeling cracks and seams

When you model cracks, you assign seams to regions of your model. Abaqus/CAE places overlapping duplicate nodes along a seam when the mesh is generated. A seam cannot extend along the boundaries of a part and must be embedded within a face of a two-dimensional part or within a cell of a solid part. Because a seam modifies the mesh, if you create a seam on a dependent part instance, it will actually be created on the underlying part, thereby affecting all instances of that part.

See Also
Using the Special menu in the Interaction module

Context:

For fracture mechanics, a seam defines an edge or a face with overlapping nodes that can separate during an analysis. You can include a seam crack in your model. Alternatively, you can refer to the seam when creating a contour integral; however, you cannot use a seam crack with the extended finite element method (XFEM). For more information, see Fracture mechanics.

  1. From the main menu bar in the Interaction module, select Special Crack Assign seam .
  2. From the model in the viewport, select the entities representing the seam. The entities must be embedded edges within a face of a two-dimensional part or embedded faces within a cell of a solid part; you cannot select any entities that lie on the boundary of the part.
  3. Click mouse button 2 to indicate that you have finished selecting the seam.

    Abaqus/CAE creates the seam.