An Abaqus-Matlab Tutorial for Jointed Systems by Dr. Nidish Balaji, Mar. 26, 2025

An Abaqus-Matlab Tutorial for Jointed Systems

Dr. Nidish Balaji

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai

March 26, 2025

Abstract:

The seminar will serve as a tutorial for modeling jointed systems through Abaqus and Matlab. The application will be restricted to small deformation problems, justifying many of the simplifications that will be done in the process. The topics that will be covered in the tutorial include Python scripting for automating the process of pre-processing in Abaqus, mesh generation and processing in Abaqus, substructured matrix extraction, and nonlinear contact analysis in MATLAB. Some practical details such as fixing geometrical inexactness, bolt-load vector extraction, relative displacement coordinates, etc. will be covered. One highlight of the tutorial is that it will be shown that non-linear analysis can be carried out in sub 100 lines of MATLAB code using the extracted matrices & vectors. Basic ideas of traction-based contact modeling with zero-thickness elements will also be introduced. The codes are also compatible with GNU Octave.

All the material for the seminar are available through this web page: https://nidish96.github.io/Abaqus4Joints/ Software requirements: Abaqus (any recent version works), Matlab (any recent version) or GNU Octave, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) if on Windows.

Biography:

Currently an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai (IIT Madras, 2024-). His research revolves around vibrations, nonlinear structural dynamics, frictional oscillations, modal testing, etc. Prior to this, he was a Humboldt postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart, hosted by Prof. Malte Krack (2022-2024); and a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University in Prof. Matthew R. W. Brake's group (2021-2022) . He received his MS & PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University (2019, 2021, Advisor: Prof. Matthew R. W. Brake) and B.Tech. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Space science & Technology (IIST) Thiruvananthapuram (2017).

Slides