Assigning thickness to shell faces

Defining the thickness in the Part module allows you to define where the midsurface of the solid lies with respect to the shell faces of the midsurface model. The default thickness definition places the midsurface in the center of the thickness. However, you can select surfaces to define a top and bottom thickness, effectively creating an offset between the midsurface and the middle of the shell thickness. Selecting top and bottom faces allows you to easily define different thicknesses at each node and define a different shell offset for each element. This freedom is useful when you use a midsurface model to approximate thin solid models with varying thickness. Using top and bottom faces also allows Abaqus/CAE to automatically update thickness data if you edit the model geometry.

  1. From the main menu bar, select ToolsMidsurfaceAssign Thickness and Offset.

    Tip: You can also assign thicknesses and offsets using the tool, located with the midsurface tools in the Part module toolbox.

    Shell faces are colored yellow if they are not currently associated with a thickness.

  2. If the part contains multiple shell faces, select the faces to which you want to assign thicknesses and offsets (for more information, see Selecting objects within the viewport”).

  3. When you have finished making selections from the viewport, click mouse button 2 to commit your selections.

    Abaqus/CAE opens the Assign Thickness and Offset dialog box.

  4. If necessary, click the Edit button next to Faces to assign thickness to change the selections you made in the previous steps.

  5. Use one of the following methods to assign a thickness to the selected faces:

    Enter or Measure the thickness

    Enter a value for thickness, or click to measure a distance in the viewport and enter it as the thickness.

    Compute thickness from opposite faces

    Toggle on this option, and click Select to select the top and/or bottom faces from the viewport.

    Abaqus/CAE highlights the faces in the viewport and calculates the thickness.

    If you select only top or only bottom faces, Abaqus/CAE applies the same thickness to both sides of the target shell faces. If you select both top and bottom faces, Abaqus/CAE calculates the thickness and an offset value so that the selected shell faces are not centered within the thickness.

  6. Click OK to apply the thickness and offset (if used) to the target faces and to close the dialog box.

You can view the thickness of faces in the model by toggling on Render shell thickness in the Abaqus/CAE display options. For more information, see Visualizing shell thicknesses, and Controlling shell thickness display.