Subsections

• Elements Processed
• Treatment of Interface and Gasket Elements
• Treatment of 'CAXA' and 'SAXA' type Elements
• Generation of Element Group Numbers

Element Topology

Elements Processed

A list of the ABAQUS elements recognised by this interface is given in Appendix A. The FEMVIEW element types each ABAQUS element is mapped to is also given. If an element type is used that is not accepted by this program a warning is issued. The element topology and any results associated with the unknown element are then ignored.

Treatment of Interface and Gasket Elements

 Some of the interface and gasket elements do not currently have an equivalent FEMVIEW element type and are therefore mapped to the closest available element. INTER8, INTER9 and GK3D18* elements are mapped onto FEMVIEW 20 noded brick elements. 6 noded gasket elements (GKPS6,GKPE6,GKPS6N GK3D6L,GK3D6LN GKAX6,GKAX6N) are mapped onto FEMVIEW 8 noded plate elements. 12 noded gasket elements (GK3D12M*) are mapped onto FEMVIEW 15 noded wedge elements. Additional nodes are created for these elements. The node numbers allocated to the new nodes start at the highest node number found in the model and are incremented for each additional node required. As these elements are stored there is currently a limit on the maximum number of elements that can be processed, see Appendix G. If more such elements are used this limit may be increased, please contact your support centre for details.

Treatment of 'CAXA' and 'SAXA' type Elements

'CAXA' and 'SAXA' type elements are displayed in FEMVIEW in each of the element nodal planes as defined by ABAQUS. The FEMGV convention for axisymmetric elements is used. The r-direction corresponds to the global X-direction in the $\theta = 0^o$ plane and the global negative Z-direction in the $\theta = 90^o$ plane, the z-direction corresponds to the global Y-direction.

Generation of Element Group Numbers

 Each element in the model is allocated a group number by this program according to the ABAQUS element type. This allows the FEMVIEW user to identify or select different ABAQUS element types that were mapped to the same FEMVIEW element type. For example, the 'S8R' element is given the group number 1011, so issuing the FEMVIEW command `LABEL MESH GROUPS 1011' will label all S8R elements in the current subset of the model. Appendix A gives a full list of group numbers allocated.

For 'CAXA' and 'SAXA' type elements, the group numbers are generated incrementally starting from 1. The elements have the same number from one nodal plane to the other but different planes are distinguished by different group numbers. Hence, elements of the same type and in the first nodal plane ($\theta = 0^o$) are in group 1 (or 11, 21 ... if several element types), elements in the second nodal plane are in group 2 (or 12, 22 ...) and so on.