36.9 Creating and editing stringer reinforcements

You can create a stringer immediately after you define the part; stringers do not initially require material or section assignments. After you have created a stringer, you can then assign it a section, beam section orientation, material orientation, and tangent direction using the options under the Special menu in the Property module. You can also assign an element type to the stringer in the Mesh module. When you are prompted to select the regions to be assigned element types, you must select Stringers from the list of object types in the Selection toolbar.

You can create multiple stringers at a time on the same edge. Abaqus/CAE treats these stringers as different layers of stringer reinforcement, and you can assign different qualities to each one.

Abaqus/CAE names stringers automatically, but you can rename them from the Stringer Manager, the Special menu, or from the Model Tree. If you create multiple stringers at once, Abaqus/CAE appends a unique identifier to the name to identify each stringer.

You can obtain data from a stringer by using the field and history output request editors in the Step module. In the Domain section of the editor, select Stringer and choose the desired stringer from the menu that appears. For more information, see Creating an output request, Section 14.12.1.

To create a stringer reinforcement:

  1. From the main menu bar in the Property module, select SpecialStringerCreate.

    Tip:  You can also click the tool in the Property module toolbox.

  2. Use one of the following methods to select the edges to which you want to add stringer reinforcement:

    Selecting individual edges:

    1. Click the arrow next to the Select entities on which to create a stringer field in the prompt area, and select individually from the list that appears.

    2. Select an edge to which you want to add stringer reinforcement.

    3. [Shift] + Click on additional edges to add them to your selection.

    4. If necessary, [Ctrl] + Click on selected edges to unselect them.

    5. When you have finished selecting edges, click mouse button 2.

    Specifying an existing set:

    1. Click Sets on the right side of the prompt area.

      Abaqus/CAE displays the Region Selection dialog box containing a list of element sets that you have created.

    2. Select the set of entities to which you want to add stringer reinforcement, and click Continue.

    Note:  The default selection method is based on the selection method you most recently employed. To revert to the other method, click Select in Viewport or Sets on the right side of the prompt area.

    Selecting edges using the angle method:

    You can use this method to select geometric edges only. This method is not available for selecting orphan mesh element edges.

    1. Click the arrow next to the Select entities on which to create a stringer field in the prompt area, and select by edge angle from the list that appears.

    2. Enter an angle (from 0° to 90°), and select an edge or another entity. Abaqus/CAE selects every adjacent edge from the selected edge until the angle between the edges is equal to or exceeds the angle that you entered. (See Using the angle and feature edge method to select multiple objects, Section 6.2.3, for more information.)

    3. After you use the by edge angle method, you can [Shift] + Click on additional edges to add them to your selection or [Ctrl] + Click on selected edges to remove them from your selection. (See Combining selection techniques, Section 6.2.8, for more information.)

    Tip:  You can use the Selection toolbar to limit the types of objects that you can select in the viewport. For more information, see Chapter 6, Selecting objects within the viewport.”

  3. If desired, toggle on Multiple stringers to create more than one stringer for the selected edge or edges.

  4. Click Done to create the stringer. If you are creating multiple stringers, enter the number of stringers you want to create, and click mouse button 2.


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