*CONNECTOR SECTION

Specify connector attributes for connector elements.

This option is used to define the attributes of connector elements.

This page discusses:

Required parameters

ELSET

Set this parameter equal to the name of the element set containing the connector elements for which the connection attributes are being defined.

Optional parameters

BEHAVIOR

Set this parameter equal to the name of the connector behavior that defines these connector elements. If this parameter is omitted, the connector element's behavior is determined by kinematic constraints only.

CONTROLS

This parameter applies only to Abaqus/Standard analyses.

Set this parameter equal to the name of a section controls definition (see Section Controls) to be used for the connector elements.

Section controls can be used to specify whether the connector elements should be deleted once they fail completely. If this parameter is omitted, the failed elements will not be deleted. Section controls can also be used to specify a maximum value of the scalar degradation (damage) parameter, Dmax, and to specify the viscosity coefficient, μ, for viscous damping or regularization.

ELIMINATION

This parameter applies only to Abaqus/Explicit analyses.

Set ELIMINATION=NO (default) if the constraint or kinetic forces/moments of the associated connector elements are to be solved for directly in the implicit constraint solver in Abaqus/Explicit.

Set ELIMINATION=YES if the constraint or kinetic forces/moments of the associated connector elements are to be solved for using a condensation technique.

Data lines to define the connection attributes

First line
  1. Basic translational connection type, basic rotational connection type, assembled connection type, or complex connection type. If an assembled or a complex connection is selected, no additional data can be entered on this data line.

  2. Basic rotational or basic translational connection component. If the first entry of this data line is a basic translational connection component, the second entry (if provided) must be a basic rotational connection component. Similarly, if the first entry of this data line is a basic rotational connection component, the second entry (if provided) must be a basic translational connection component.

Second line (optional)
  1. Orientation name specifying the local directions at the first node (or ground node) of the connector element.

  2. Orientation name specifying the local directions at the second node (or ground node) of the connector element. If an orientation name is not specified, the local directions at the first node are used.

Omit the second line if neither of the two orientations is specified and the third line is omitted. Leave blank if neither of the two orientations is specified and the third line is included.

Third line (optional) for SLIPRING connection type
  1. Mass per unit reference length of belt material.

  2. Contact angle (in radians) made by belt wrapping around node b (optional). In Abaqus/Standard the default value is 0.0. In Abaqus/Explicit the contact angle is computed automatically if it is not specified.

Omit the third line if no data are specified.

Third line (optional) for RETRACTOR or FLOW-CONVERTER connection types
  1. Scaling factor for material flow at node b, βs (default value is 1.0).

Omit the third line if no data are specified.