Good morning. I am trying to do a FEM simulation using the Abaqus problem, and I am having some problems in the modelling. The objective is to model an air beam (a fabric material with internal overpressure) to which, after inflation, some struts are attached. The objective of the struts are to reinforce the air beam. I can model the struts by drawing them using the "stringers" option in the Property module in Abaqus, or by drawing them as a different part and afterwards using "Tie constraint" in the Interaction module. The problem is that if I use one of these 2 options, I have to include the struts from the first step, while I actually want to put the struts after the air beam inflation to avoid to pre-stress them due to the air beam deformation. How can I do that?

I know there are options to import an .odb file containing the already pre-stressed air beam (so I was thinking I could just import the pre-stress field and avoid the inflation step), but if I think it does not work for my case: if I do not put a overpressure loading, the membrane wants to come back to its natural position since it has no reason to be stressed.

Any advice? Is there any option in ABAQUS to put a part or a stringer after a step?

As constraints, I have to use the Explicit solver (which is not compatible with all the available options in Abaqus), since the fabric is a non-linear material.

Thank you very much for the help, and if further clarification is needed, please feel free.

Best regards,

Anna Suñol, PhD student at VUB, Mechanical Engineering Department