Making Assumptions (in Abaqus)

At the conference I attended last week I was able to talked to the creators and owners of DANTE. It is a material database with kinetic phase transformation information that interfaces with Abaqus. What that means is that when Austenite transforms to Martensite and there is a volume change you can simulate that. (It is a really big thing in the heat treating world because only two companies have created software to do that.)

I talked to them about my specific problems and learned that they make many simplifications such as only using one or two heat transfer coefficients in each step on complex parts and simulating the interactions between parts by simplifying the geometry of the parts. I know those are two vague descriptions but I really should not delve into the details. The point is that they just made my job a lot easier. It is amazing how much a 10 minute conversation in person can be so much more informative than an email conversation or trying to read technical papers looking for the answer.

The moral of the story is: perhaps you can find the solution to your problem by simplifying the problem. Of course sometime it can not be simplified...