This topic has always been very popular and this problem has always been very complicated in FEA user community since the inception of Abaqus, or any non-linear FEA code in general. In this brief article, I will highlight few simulation situations where Abaqus standard may not be a good candidate from convergence perspective. Identifying these situations early during pre-processing and working in Explicit right away may save lots of time and efforts that otherwise would be wasted in trying Abaqus Standard.

• Look at the motion aspect: We always say that simulation is not the complete replacement of physical testing right away. In the beginning physical tests play a critical role in identifying right approach for simulation as well as in data correlation between physical and virtual tests. Look closely at the physical test. Is there a large relative motion between different parts involved? If yes, then Standard is very likely to face convergence problems, even if problem is static by nature. Standard has an option of “small sliding” and “finite sliding”. But user should remember the difference between “finite sliding” and “large sliding”. Attached is the video of wire crimping simulation that ideally is a static problem but numerically not a good candidate for Standard, primarily because of motion.
• Clock time matters: Apart from magnitude of motion, the duration of motion matters as well. While looking at physical test, closely look at the time in which motion is completed. If too much of motion is covered in too less time, problem is indeed dynamic instead of static as inertia effects cannot be ignored. In such a situation either Standard dynamics or Explicit would be the right way to go. Which one to choose really depends on event duration. If a lot of dynamic phenomenon happens in the order of milliseconds or microseconds, Explicit is only option for this candidate.
• Is there a severe discontinuous contact: In the status file of Abaqus Standard, there is an undesirable column called SDI’s. It’s called severe discontinuous iterations and too many of these often always leads to convergence nightmare. The reason of SDI’s is discontinuous contact, also known as “chattering”. It’s a phenomenon in which nodes between two bodies in contact continuously change their contact status from OPEN to CLOSE from one iteration to the other as analysis proceeds. If chattering occurs due to modeling errors, it can be corrected but at times discontinuous contact is the nature of problem itself. In such a situation, explicit is the only approach to be taken, even for long duration events with respect to physical time. The attached video is an example of a dynamic event that would only solve in explicit or multi body dynamics, primarily because of severe discontinuous contact.
• Is there too much Plasticity: Abaqus has material models to capture plasticity but there is a limit on the magnitude of Plasticity Abaqus Standard can handle. If the permanent deformation becomes so high that underlying part completely loses its load carrying capacity then Newton Raphson method of Abaqus Standard would not be able to establish equilibrium and further leading to non-convergence. Ideally, there is no further need to perform simulation as it’s a classic situation of part failure but if further simulation is needed, it should be continued in Explicit using Restart options.

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