5.9 Redistributing the mass of an element set using a scale factor

Product: Abaqus/Explicit  

Benefits: You can now specify a scale factor to adjust the mass of one or more components in the model. You can also specify if either the total or the added mass should be redistributed among the elements of the components to maximize their stable time increment. This method provides an alternative to the fixed mass scaling functionality, eliminating the need to define a target stable time increment while giving you full control over the amount of added mass.

Description: When the mass adjustment is defined using a scale factor, you can maximize the minimum stable time increment in the initial configuration for an element set by redistributing either the total mass or only the added mass among the elements in that set. The redistribution of the total mass to maximize the time increment is done iteratively by taking mass from each element with a stable time increment greater than the average and adding it to the elements with lower time increments.

Abaqus/Explicit redistributes only the added mass to maximize the time increment in a similar fashion, but only the added mass is transferred between elements. The elements may not have the same time increment after the redistribution is complete. Both methods for mass redistribution affect the center of mass and the principal directions of rotary inertia, but redistributing only the added mass with a relatively small scale factor may have a lesser impact.

Alternatively, you can scale the mass to redistribute it uniformly (in proportion with the pre-adjusted mass) without affecting the center of mass and the principal directions of rotary inertia.

References:

Abaqus Analysis User's Guide

Abaqus Keywords Reference Guide