Product: Abaqus/CAE
Benefits: You can now create a symbol plot that displays nodal forces as free body vectors that show force and moment distributions across sections of a model. This enhancement enables you to visualize individual vectors on nodes that vector sum to the total free body vector. The new symbol plot functionality complements the existing free body cut options, which allow you to obtain the forces and moments at a location in the part or along a view cut.
Description: Symbol plots in Abaqus/CAE now support the display of free body nodal forces. Figure 13–7 shows a model in which several nodes have an imbalance of forces or moments due to an applied load; the symbol plot displays free body vectors to identify these nodes. The figure also shows the Field Output dialog box with the new FREEBODY symbol variable selected.
The symbol plot displays free body vectors at each node that has a nonzero force summation. The total forces for the entire part always equal zero.The output database you select must include results from output variable NFORC. Abaqus/CAE calculates the vectors for a symbol plot of free body nodal forces using the contents of the current display group.
Symbol plots of free body nodal forces can be customized using the same vector display options that are available for all other symbol plots: you can adjust the vector arrow color, size, style, and density; and you can display or hide the force or moment values next to each free body vector. In addition, you can still display free body data on a view cut while you are working with a symbol plot of free body nodal forces.
Visualization module:
Result
Field Output: Symbol Variable: FREEBODY