Can anyone please suggest how to vary the stress magnitude across the thickness of shell elements in the initial state (Abaqus)?. Any material corresponding to it will be very helpful.
It can be done using option *INITIAL CONDITIONS, TYPE=STRESS, SECTION POINTS in .inp file. See https://abaqus-docs.mit.edu/2017/English/SIMACAEKEYRefMap/simakey-r-initialconditions.htm