ME 498CA1 · Abaqus Lecture #3 FEA Solver Lab

Loading & Analysis of a Pipe’s Vibrations

We will study the vibrational frequencies of a 5 m segment of pipe. The pipe is clamped securely at
one end and can move only axially at the other end. We will use 3D beam elements to model the
pipe segment.

When unloaded, the lowest vibrational mode of the pipe is 40.1 Hz. However, loading may affect the
response. Resonance is highly undesirable in this system, so we require the magnitude of the in-
service load such that the pipe's lowest vibrational mode is higher than 50 Hz. It is intended that this
section of pipe be subject to axial tension in service; we should therefore consider various loads,
starting with a load magnitude of 4 MN.
Module Part
You should now create a 3D, deformable, planar wire part (using a scale just larger than the largest
dimension of your model). Name this part Pipe. Select the Create Lines: Connected tool and sketch a
horizontal line of length 5.0 m. (This time, use the icon on the Model tree.)
Module Property
We will utilize a steel with the following properties:
Material Property & Value Name

E = 2×1011 Pa Young's modulus

ν = 0.3 Poisson's ratio

ρ = 7800 kg·m−3 density

1. Create a steel Steel with these properties. To edit the density, select Edit
Material→General→Density.
2. Create a Pipe profile from the main menu bar (Profile) or from the toolbar box .
Name the profile PipeProfile, and specify the shape as Pipe.
In the Edit Profile dialog box, choose Thin-walled type, and
specify an outer radius of 0.18 m ÷ 2 = 0.09 m and a wall thickness
of 0.02 m for the pipe.
Note: A profile definition is necessary here, since we used only a
simple line to represent the pipe.
3. Create a section named PipeSection of category Beam and type
Beam. In the Edit Beam Section dialog box, we must specify that

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ME 498CA1 · Abaqus Lecture #3 FEA Solver Lab

section integration will be performed during analysis and assign material Steel and profile
PipeProfile to the section definition.
Note: Settings “during analysis” are used when section properties must be recomputed as the
beam deforms.
Note: The option Section Poisson’s ratio provides uniform strain in the section due to the
strain of the beam axis so that the cross-sectional area changes when the beam is stretched.
4. Assign section PipeSection to the pipe.
5. Click Assign Beam Orientation and use the default direction of (0,0,−1).

Module Assembly
1. Create a dependent instance of the part named Pipe.
2. Create geometry sets.
Note: In Abaqus, you can define different types of sets, such as geometry, load, boundary
condition; this allows you to edit parts by group rather than individually when necessary.
3. In the model tree go to Model-1→Assembly and double-click on Sets. Or in the menu bar go to
Tools→Set→Create.
4. In the Create Set dialog box, name the Set as LeftEnd and Continue to select the left end of the
pipe; click Done in the Prompt Area. A new set named Left in the Sets tree appears. Create
another set named RightEnd containing the right end of the pipe.

Module Step
Two steps are required:
Step Details
General Apply a 4 MN tensile force.
Linear perturbation Calculate modes and frequencies.
1. Create a step of the type General; Static, General.
1. Name this step Pull I with the following description: Apply
axial tensile load of 4.0 MN.
2. In the Edit Step dialog box, include the effects of geometric
nonlinearity by toggling on Nlgeom. Specify Time period of 1
and Incrementation→Initial increment size of 0.1.

Time has no physical meaning in a static analysis procedure,

but this causes Abaqus/Standard to apply 10% of the load in the first increment. We
just need it to load relatively fast but not so fast that large displacements are affected
adversely.
2. Create another step of the type Linear perturbation, frequency.

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1. Name the step Frequency I, and give it the following description: Extract modes
and frequencies; extract the first 8 eigenmodes for the model.
2. In the Edit Step dialog box, choose Eigensolver: Subspace, request 8 eigenvalues, use
16 vectors per iteration and limit the maximum number of iterations to 30.
3. The final default step is Output requests. In this case, the default output database output
requests created by Abaqus/CAE for each step will suffice and we do not need to create any
additional output database output requests. If you do need to request output to the restart file:
1. In the Main Menu, select Output→Restart Requests from the Main Menubar of the
Step module.
2. For the step labeled Pull I, write data to the restart file Every 10 increments.
3. For the step labeled Frequency I, write data to the restart file Every 1 increment.

Module Load
1. In the first step Pull I, create a Mechanical Concentrated force named
Force that applies a 4E6 N tensile force to the RightEnd set. This will cause it
to deform in the positive axial (global 1) direction. (Adjust these steps in the
context bar, or in the model tree, go to Steps→Pull I→BCs/Loads.) Now you
can use the sets we just created, can click the right end in the viewport, or
select from the Sets list in the prompt area.
2. The pipe section is clamped at its left end (Encastre). It
is also clamped at the right end; however, the axial force
must be applied at this end, so only degrees of freedom 2 through 6 (U2,
U3, UR1, UR2, and UR3) are constrained.

Note: All loads and boundary conditions are applied in the first step.

Module Mesh
1. Seed and mesh the pipe section with 30 uniformly
spaced Quadratic pipe elements (PIPE32).
1. Five meters with thirty elements–skip the
calculator an just go to the command line .
2. For a 2D model, you don’t need to assign mesh
control.

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2. Before continuing, rename the model to Original (at the Model tree).
3. Create a job named Pipe with the description Analysis of a 5 meter long pipe under
tensile load.
4. Save your model in a model database file, and submit the job for analysis.

Module Job
You can open the Job Monitor in the Job Manager dialog box. Here you can see the Log, Errors,
Warnings and other output of the Pipe job.
1. Open the folder where your job is running. We can see
these files:
• Pipe.log
• Pipe.dat
• Pipe.msg
• Pipe.odb
• Pipe.inp
• Pipe.res
• …

Module Visualization
1. Enter the Visualization module, and open the output database, Pipe.odb, created by this job.
2. To plot the first mode shape:
1. From the Main Menu, select Result→Step/Frame.
2. In the Step/Frame dialog box, select step Frequency I and frame Mode 1.
3. Click OK.

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ME 498CA1 · Abaqus Lecture #3 FEA Solver Lab

Loading & Analysis of a Pipe’s Vibrations

The first simulation predicted that the piping section would be vulnerable to resonance when
extended axially. We must now determine how much additional axial load will increase the pipe's
lowest vibrational frequency to an acceptable level.
We will conduct this analysis by restarting the previous analysis of the vibration.

Restart Analysis
1. Copy the model named Original to a model named Restart.
(Go to the Model Manager from the Main Menu, or right click on
Original at the model tree)
2. Set the model attributes. To perform a restart analysis, the model's
attributes must be changed to indicate that the model should
reuse data from a previous analysis.
1. In the Model Tree, double-click the Restart model
underneath the Models container.
2. The Edit Model Attributes dialog box that appears,
specify that restart data will be read from the job Pipe
and that the restart location will be the end of step
Frequency I.
3. Create two new analysis steps.
1. The first new step is a general static step.
1. Name the step Pull II, and insert it
immediately after the step Frequency I.
2. Give the description Apply axial tensile
load of 8.0 MN to the step.
3. Set the time period for the step to 1.0 and
the initial time increment to 0.1.
2. The second new step is a frequency extraction step.
1. Name the step Frequency II.
2. Insert it immediately after the step Pull II.
3. Give the step the description Extract modes and frequencies.
4. Use the Lanczos eigensolver to extract the first 8 natural modes and
frequencies of the pipe.
3. For the step Pull II, write data to the restart file Every 10 increments.

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4. Accept all other default output data requests.

4. Modify the load definition so that the tensile load that is applied to the pipe is doubled in the
second general static step (Pull II). To do this,
1. Expand the Force item underneath the Loads container in the Model Tree.
2. In the list that appears, expand the States item.
3. Double-click the step named Pull II.
4. Change the value of the applied force to 8.0E+06 in this step.
5. Create a job named PipeRestart.
1. Add the description Restart analysis of a 5 meter long pipe under tensile
load.
2. Set the job type to Restart if it is not already. (If the job type is not set to Restart,
Abaqus/CAE ignores the model's restart attributes.)
6. Save your model in a model database file, and submit the job for analysis.

Postprocessing

PLOTTING THE EIGENMODES OF THE PIPE SYSTEM

Plotting X–Y graphs from field data for selected steps

Use the field data stored in the output database files, Pipe.odb and PipeRestart.odb, to plot the
history of the axial stress in the pipe for the whole simulation.
1. In the Results Tree, double-click XYData to show the Create XY Data dialog box.
1. Select ODB field output from this dialog box, and click Continue to proceed.
2. In the XY Data from ODB Field Output dialog box, select the Variables tab.
1. Accept the default selection of Integration Point for variable position.
2. Select S11 from the list of available stress components.
3. Toggle Select for the section point.
4. Click Settings to choose a section point.
5. In the Field Report Section Point Settings dialog box:
1. Select the category beam and choose any available section point for the
pipe cross-section.
6. In the XY Data from ODB Field Output dialog box, select the
Elements/Nodes tab.
1. Select Element labels as the selection Method.
There are 30 elements in the model, and they are numbered
consecutively from 1 to 30. Enter any element number (e.g., 18) in the
Element labels field.
7. Click Active Steps/Frames, and select Pull II as the step to extract data from.

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8. At the bottom of the XY Data from ODB Field Output dialog box:
1. Click Plot to see the history of axial stress in the element.
The resulting plot shows the axial stress history for each integration
point of the element during the restart analysis. Since there is a job
history prior to the restart, it is desirable to view the entire analysis.

Plotting history of entire analysis

1. Save the current plot by clicking Save at the bottom of the XY Data from ODB Field Output
dialog box. Two curves are saved (one for each integration point), and default names are given
to the curves.
2. Rename one curve RESTART, and delete the other curve.
3. From the main menu bar, select File→Open or use the tool in the File toolbar to open the
file Pipe.odb.
4. Following the procedure outlined above, save the plot of the axial stress history for the same
element and integration/section point used above. Name this plot ORIGINAL.
5. In the Results Tree, expand the XYData container.
6. Select both plots with [Ctrl]+Click. Right click to display a context menu. Select Plot from
this menu to create a plot of axial stress history in the pipe for the entire simulation.
7. To change the style of the line, open the Curve Options dialog box.
1. For the RESTART curve, select the dotted line style — — —.
2. Dismiss the dialog box.
8. To change the axis titles, open the Axis Options dialog box. In the Title tab:
1. Change the X-axis title to TOTAL TIME.
2. Change the Y-axis title to STRESS S11.
3. Dismiss the dialog box.

Figure 1. History of axial stress in the pipe. Figure 2. History of axial stress in the pipe during Step 3.

Reference
This tutorial is based on an example from the Abaqus 6.12 documentation.

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