Abaqus Constraints Guide

The Abaqus Constraints Guide describes how to model kinematic relationships between points and surfaces.

This guide is a part of the Abaqus® documentation collection, which describes all the capabilities of the Abaqus finite element analysis technology used in SIMULIA® applications.

You can define the following types of kinematic constraints:

  • Linear multi-point constraints in the form of equations.
  • Multi-point constraints that specify linear or nonlinear constraints between nodes.
  • In Abaqus/Standard kinematic coupling constraints that allow general node-by-node specification of constrained degrees of freedom.
  • Surface-based tie constraints that tie two surfaces together.
  • Surface-based coupling constraints that constrain a group of nodes located on a surface to a reference node.
  • Surface-based shell-to-solid coupling couples an edge-based surface on a three-dimensional shell element mesh to an element- or node-based surface on a three-dimensional solid mesh.
  • Mesh-independent fasteners (such as spot welds) can bond together two or more surfaces.
  • Embedded elements that lie embedded in a group of "host" elements in a model.
  • In Abaqus/Standard local rotational degree of freedom or a combination of local rotational degrees of freedom can be released at one or both ends of a beam element.