tianjuchen / neper2abaqus

Use Neper to create an input file and update it to include materials and sections for each generated grain

Neper2Abaqus

Main Function

Create a microstructure using Neper, with the output of the microstructure format as an Abaqus input file and update the Abaqus input file to include materials and sections for each generated grain.

The purpose of including the volume and seed information is to calculate the equivalent spherical diameter of each grain and the centroid location which are used by the current UMAT to determine the location of the integration point with respect to the grain boundary.

Please note, this has only currently been created with the most current UMAT in mind. I will add more functionality as I progress.

Creating Microstruture with Neper

Included here is an example shell file (neper_example.sh) which can be used to create a synthetic microstructre in Neper with the following features:

• a unit volume RVE with 300 grains.
• assigned angles defined by euler angles

Extracting information output from Neper

The grain information can be extracted from the file '.tess' generated by Neper. The important information to use here are:

• orientation (found at the location in the file marked with 'ori')
• grain centroid in x,y,z (found at the location in the file marked with 'seed' using the 2nd-4th columns)

The volume for each grain is found in the file with extension '.stelset'

Once this information is extracted, it all should be added to the corresponding sheets in the excel file included here named 'input_file_info'

Material parameters

The material parameters required should also be added to the corresponding sheet in the excel file named 'input_file_info'. The parameters from 1-155 are based on the order in the pdf file found here.

Installation

Simply copy files in the folder titled Neper2Abaqus into the MATLAB file path.

Running the MATLAB function

Run using from the command line using: neper2abq('name__') where 'name' is the name of the input file. Please also include the double underscore at the end of the name you choose.

Running this function will create two files:

• 'name_materials.inp'
• 'name_sections.inp'

Creating the final input file for Abaqus

The final step is to take the input file generated by Neper and the two input files created using this function and add them to the same folder. Finally, open the input file generated by Neper and modify in by adding to the end of the file the following:

• Before'*End Part':

  *Include, Input = name_sections.inp

• After '*End Part':

  *Include, Input = name_materials.inp

This input file can now by imported into Abaqus with the model containing all the materials and sections.