Distribution Definition

A distribution:

  • is a spatially varying field defined over elements, nodes, or element faces in an Abaqus model;

  • can be used to define shell thicknesses for shell elements with displacement degrees of freedom;

  • can be used to define beam radii for beam elements with a solid circular section when numerical integration across the section is required;

  • can be used to define shell stiffness;

  • can be used to define local coordinate systems on solid continuum and shell elements that have displacement degrees of freedom;

  • can be used to define local material directions or fiber directions on solid continuum and shell elements with anisotropic materials (such as anisotropic hyperelastic materials) or, in Abaqus/Explicit, fabric materials;
  • can be used to define orientation angles on the layers of composite shell elements that have displacement degrees of freedom;

  • can be used to define orientation angles for connector elements;

  • can be used to define thicknesses on the layers of conventional composite shell elements;

  • can be used to specify initial contact clearances;

  • can be used to specify the volume fraction, aspect ratio, and second-order orientation tensor of a constituent in a multiscale material; and

  • can be used in an adjoint design sensitivity analysis to specify scale factors and a quantity related to the scale factor derivatives for scaling the mass, stiffness, or design stress material attribute on an element-by-element basis; to specify scale factors for material thermal conductivity on an element-by-element basis; or to specify nodal adjustments (displacements) on a node-by-node basis; and

  • in an Abaqus/Standard analysis can be used to define mass density, linear elastic material behavior, and thermal expansion for solid continuum elements; shell offsets; orientation angles and thicknesses on the layers of composite solid continuum elements; local coordinate systems on membrane elements; and membrane thickness on an element-by-element basis.

This page discusses:

See Also
Orientations
In Other Guides
About the Material Library
Material Data Definition
Combining Material Behaviors
Density
Linear Elastic Behavior
Thermal Expansion
Solid (Continuum) Elements
Membrane Elements
Using a Shell Section Integrated during the Analysis to Define the Section Behavior
Using a General Shell Section to Define the Section Behavior
Using a Beam Section Integrated during the Analysis to Define the Section Behavior
About Connectors
Contact Initialization for General Contact in Abaqus/Explicit
Mean-Field Homogenization
*DISTRIBUTION
*DISTRIBUTION TABLE

ProductsAbaqus/StandardAbaqus/Explicit