Creating a growth restriction

You can specify a growth restriction for a shape optimization. A growth restriction limits how much a face can grow (surface nodes are moved out) or shrink (surface nodes are moving in) relative to the initial design. For example, if you are optimizing a model that will be cast, you can use a growth restriction to control the maximum and minimum wall thickness in a region.

Related Topics
Creating a geometric restriction in a topology or sizing optimization
Creating a geometric restriction in a shape optimization

  1. From the main menu bar, select Geometric RestrictionCreate.

    The Create Geometric Restriction dialog box appears.

    Tip: You can initiate the Create procedure in two other ways:

    • Click Create in the Geometric Restriction Manager. (You can display the Geometric Restriction Manager by selecting Geometric RestrictionManager from the main menu bar.)

    • Click the tool in the Optimization module toolbox.

  2. From the Create Geometric Restriction dialog box that appears, enter the name of the geometric restriction.

  3. Select Growth from the list of geometric restrictions, and click Continue.

  4. From the viewport, select the faces to which the growth restrictions will be applied. For more information, see Using the face curvature method to select multiple faces.

    If you would rather select from a list of existing face sets, do the following:

    1. Click Sets on the right side of the prompt area.

      Abaqus/CAE displays the Region Selection dialog box containing a list of available sets.

    2. Select the set of interest, and click Continue.

    Note:

    The default selection method is based on the selection method you most recently employed. To revert to the other method, click Select in Viewport or Sets on the right side of the prompt area.

  5. When you have finished selecting faces, click Done in the prompt area.

    The Edit Geometric Restriction dialog box appears.

  6. Toggle on Maximum in shrink direction, and enter a positive value specifying the maximum inward displacement of a surface node.

  7. Toggle on Maximum in growth direction, and enter a positive value specifying the maximum outward displacement of a surface node.

  8. If desired, toggle on Ignore in first design cycle (default). When the optimization starts, it assumes the growth of the face is already limited. If the growth of the face exceeds the specified value, the Optimization module issues a warning and tries to continue. If you toggle off Ignore in first design cycle and the growth of the face exceeds the specified value, the Optimization module issues an error message and stops execution.

  9. Click OK to create the growth geometric restriction and to exit the editor.