About Shell Sections Split by Thickness and Offset

When you define a shell section from a surface that is associated with a solid part, the app normally includes thickness and offset distributions with uniform field variables. However, you can split a shell section by thickness and offset to create a single shell section that averages the actual thickness and offset values in adjoining sections. The app averages these values for adjoining sections only when their values fall within a interval that you specify.

The following image illustrates one example of a solid part with varying thickness and offset:

For the purposes of this averaging example, the minimum thickness is 1 mm and the thickness interval is 0.5 mm. In this case the app groups all elements with thicknesses between 1.25 mm and 1.75 mm in an element set, and it averages the thickness of all elements in this interval. Multiple shell sections are created with a constant thickness.

You can also create a single shell section in the same example by omitting the interval value. In this case, the thickness of the resulting shell section will be the average of the minimum and maximum thickness values, or 1.5.

Splitting a shell section by thickness and offset generates groups of properties for a surface instead of thickness and offset distributions with uniform field variables (the default). This option causes the field variable distribution of the shell section to be split up in the Abaqus^® input file based on the thickness and offset range in the interval that you specify.

Splitting shell sections by thickness and offset offers the following advantages: exported Abaqus input file are smaller, the option enables you to export the simulation to Nastran, and the resulting shell sections are easier to debug. However, simulation results with shell sections split by thickness and offset can sometimes be less precise than those with shell sections using the default distributions for thickness and offset.