# Specifying connector derived components

 You can create a connector derived component to specify the friction-generating normal force in connectors as a complex combination of connector forces and moments or to use as an intermediate result in a connector potential function. For more information on connector derived components, see Connector functions for coupled behavior.
 Related Topics Understanding connector sections and functions Connector section editors Specifying predefined friction parameters or contact forces Specifying potential terms

Context:

To display context-sensitive help for options in the derived component editor or the Edit Derived Component Term dialog box, you must select the option of interest and then press F1. (The Help menu in the main menu bar is unavailable while the editor and dialog box are displayed.)

1. To display the connector derived component editor, click from the connector section editor when you are defining a user-defined friction model or from potential contribution editors. For more information, see Specifying predefined friction parameters or contact forces, and Specifying potential terms.

2. In the Edit Derived Component dialog box you can add, edit, and delete derived component terms as follows:

Click to display the Edit Derived Component Term dialog box.

Modifying terms

In the Derived Component Terms list, select the term whose data you want to change, and click to display the Edit Derived Component Term dialog box.

Deleting terms

In the Derived Component Terms list, select the terms that you want to delete, and click .

3. In the Edit Derived Component Term dialog box, do the following:

1. Select a Term operator to specify the method used to compute the derived component term.

Square root of sum of squares

Abaqus computes the derived component term as the square root of the sum of the squares of each intrinsic component contribution.

Direct sum

Abaqus computes the derived component term as the direct sum of the intrinsic component contributions.

Macauley sum

Abaqus computes the derived component term as the sum of the intrinsic component contributions with a Macauley bracket function applied to each contribution.

2. Choose the Overall term sign.

Positive

Select a positive sign for the derived component term.

Negative

Select a negative sign for the derived component term.

3. Choose the intrinsic components to be used in the definition of the derived component, and enter the scaling factor ($α1$) for each component in the data table.
4. If desired, toggle on Use local directions, choose Independent position components or Independent constitutive motion components, and select the available components of relative position or constitutive motion to be used as independent variables in the definition of the connector derived component. Enter the connector relative position or constitutive motion in the direction specified by the independent component in the corresponding field of the table. For more information, see Defining nonlinear connector behavior properties to depend on relative positions or constitutive displacements/rotations.
5. If desired, toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define data that vary with temperature. A column labeled Temp appears in the data table.
6. If desired, click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables to define data that depend on field variables. Field variable columns appear in the data table.

4. To modify the behavior settings for the regularization (Abaqus/Explicit analyses only) or the extrapolation of the data, use the procedure described in Specifying behavior settings for tabular data.

5. Click to save the data and to exit the editor.