Click the Options Edit… button to define the settings for the export to Abaqus.

After entering all parameters, click Export to export the simulation for Abaqus.

In the ExportGeo-Abaqus – Export Stiffness Simulation dialog, choose a Result File Name (*.gdr) according to your current project. The result file contains all the information about the current export. The corresponding result folder contains the input files for Abaqus and the chosen structure. The options for ExportGeo-Abaqus are organized under the Constituent Materials and Solver tabs.

Constituent Materials

The mechanical properties of all materials in the structure are defined in the corresponding fields under the Constituent Materials tab. Since the goal is the computation of the effective elastic properties of the structure, only linear elastic materials are supported here. Materials can either be chosen from the GeoDict Material Database, or manual materials can be directly defined in the dialog.

The GeoDict Material Database can be edited after clicking on Open & Edit Material Database. To select a material from the database, click on the button of the material to open the Material Selector and choose the desired material. The mechanical properties of the material are taken from the Material Database and shown in the Mechanical Prop. tab.

To define a Manual material, choose Solid → Manual in the Material Selector. In the next step, enter the Young’s modulus and the Poisson ratio under the Mechanical Prop. tab.

Solver

The settings for the Abaqus simulation are defined under the Solver tab.

Select the Solver Type for the simulation in Abaqus with the corresponding dropdown menu. The available options are Direct or Iterative.

If the Iterative solver is selected, choose the corresponding solver Accuracy here.

ExportGeo-Abaqus supports Abaqus version 6.9 and higher. If you use an Abaqus version between 6.9 and 6.11, select Abaqus 6.9. If you use Abaqus version 6.11 or newer, choose Abaqus 6.11.

The stiffness is calculated based on tensile experiments in six different load directions. The Displacement Ratio is the applied strain in these experiments. The default value of 0.005 corresponds to 0.5 % strain.

Either Periodic or Dirichlet boundary conditions can be applied to the load direction. Dirichlet boundary conditions correspond to the Symmetric boundary condition in ElastoDict.

Select the Load Cases which are simulated in Abaqus. For every direction, a different experiment is computed:

• XX, YY, ZZ: tension in X-, Y- and Z-directions.
• YZ, XZ, XY: shear in YZ-, XZ and XY-planes.

By default, all six load directions are selected since they are necessary for computing the stiffness tensor. Therefore, it is recommended to keep the default setting. In the tangential directions, a zero-strain boundary condition is applied.