An Abaqus UEL implementation of the smoothed finite element method
Provides an implementation of CSFEM in a commercial software for users who need an alternative to standard FEM without isoparametric mapping.
The paper implements a cell-based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) in Abaqus via user element subroutines, validated on 2D and 3D linear elastostatic benchmarks.
In this paper, we discuss the implementation of a cell based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) within the commercial finite element software Abaqus. The salient feature of the CSFEM is that it does not require an explicit form of the derivative of the shape functions and there is no isoparametric mapping. This implementation is accomplished by employing the user element subroutine (UEL) feature of the software. The details on the input data format together with the proposed user element subroutine, which forms the core of the finite element analysis are given. A few benchmark problems from linear elastostatics in both two and three dimensions are solved to validate the proposed implementation. The developed UELs and the associated input files can be downloaded from Github repository link: https://github.com/nsundar/SFEM\_in\_Abaqus.