Workshop 4

Underwater shock analysis

Keywords Version
Note: This workshop provides instructions in terms of the Abaqus
Keywords interface. If you wish to use the Abaqus GUI interface instead,
please see the Interactive version of these instructions.
Please complete either the Keywords or Interactive version of this
workshop.

Goals
When you complete this workshop, you will be able to:
Set up and analyze underwater shock problems.
Determine the transient shock response of a submerged cylinder excited by a blast
load.
Understand the concept and the implementation of the Scattered Wave
formulation.
Define acoustic excitation loads via the *INCIDENT WAVE option.
Add reflective surfaces and examine the change in results.

Introduction
For this workshop, we will study a classical underwater shock example problem: a
submerged infinitely long elastic cylinder excited by a planar shock wave from a charge
that is relatively close to the structure. The effect of the pressure wave reflecting off the
bottom surface (the seabed) is included in the second part of this workshop. In this
workshop you will add important modeling details to complete the supplied analysis
input file that already contains basic modeling data such as node, element, and material
definitions, which will help you to leverage the Abaqus and acoustics knowledge that you
have accumulated thus far, and quickly determine the user inputs required in underwater
shock analyses.
Case 1: Infinite cylinder without bottom reflection
The infinite cylinder excited by a plane wave is a two-dimensional problem with a single
plane of symmetry. The half-model for this problem is shown in Figure W4-1. The
infinite cylinder is fully submerged in the fluid so that free surface effects are negligible.
Artificial material properties are used in order to avoid spending an inordinate amount of
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time, as this is an instructional exercise. The coupling between the structure and the fluid
is enforced using the *TIE option which does not require compatible meshes. The mesh
density of the fluid is chosen so that the shock is captured accurately.

Figure W4-1 Infinite cylinder half-model.

1. Enter the working directory for this workshop:
../acoustics/keywords/workshop4

2. Open the provided incomplete input file inf-cyl-noref.inp in a text editor

and review its contents. This input file uses the Abaqus part/instance/assembly
paradigm. When adding options to this input file, consult the online
documentation to determine where the options go, and to understand the options
further.
The half-cylinder is modeled with 36 S4R shell elements. The fluid is modeled
with AC3D8R elements. The bulk viscosities and the time interval sizes have
been chosen to reduce the run time while capturing the shock accurately, thus
optimizing the efficiency of the solution.
3. After both the part instances have been declared, a number of surfaces have been
defined, primarily for output purposes. Define a node set named LEADING-EDGE
consisting of nodes 37 and 74 of the SHELL instance. Define another node set
named TRAILING-EDGE consisting of SHELL nodes 1 and 38. These will be
used to generate history output, and to apply boundary conditions. Figure W4-2
shows where the node sets are.
The syntax to be used is:
*NSET, NSET=node_set_name, INSTANCE=instance_name
node1,node2,etc

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Figure W4-2 Shell model.

4. Define a surface on the shell elements that will be in contact with the acoustic
elements representing the fluid. Use the predefined element set SHELL-FLUID,
and create the surface using the SPOS side of the elements in the set, as shown in
Figure W4-2. Create another surface on the acoustic elements that will be in
contact with the structure. Use the predefined element set FLUID-SHELL, and
create the surface on the S4 side of these elements, as shown in Figure W4-3.
These surfaces will be used to define the loading, and to couple the structural
displacements to the acoustic pressures. The syntax to be used is:
*SURFACE, TYPE=ELEMENT, NAME=surface_name
element_set, face_label

5. Define the surface where the radiation boundary condition is active. For this, use
the predefined element set RADIATION, and use face S6, as shown in Figure W43. Name this surface RADIATION.

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Figure W4-3 Acoustic fluid model.

6. Add the *TIE constraint in order to implicitly couple the response of the structure
to that of the fluid. Use the ADJUST parameter on this option and set it to YES.
This eliminates any separation between the surfaces that might be present due to
round-off errors. Specify the fluid surface to be the slave and the shell surface to
be the master. Name the constraint AC-STR-COUPLING. The syntax is:
*TIE, NAME=constraint_name, ADJUST=YES
slave_surface, master_surface

7. Add the boundary conditions. On the node sets LEADING-EDGE and TRAILINGEDGE, constrain all degrees of freedom except degree of freedom 1. On the node
sets BACK and FRONT constrain degrees of freedom 3 through 5. The syntax is:
*BOUNDARY
node_set, first_dof_constrained, last_dof_constrained

8. Define a nonreflecting boundary impedance on the surface named RADIATION.

Choose a CIRCULAR nonreflecting condition; the radius of the circle is 2.0.
*SIMPEDANCE, NONREFLECTING=type
surface name, radius

9. Add the incident wave property. Use the name PLANE for this property. Set the
speed of sound in the fluid and the fluid density each equal to 1:
*INCIDENT WAVE INTERACTION PROPERTY, NAME=property_name
cf , f

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10. Review the input file that you have made changes to again. Make sure that you
understand all the options used in the file. Some of them have been created for
you in advance. Use the documentation to clarify anything that is unclear.
Remember that the *AMPLITUDE definition used in the input deck refers to the
amplitude function of the shock at the standoff point, not at the source point.
Notice that direct user control has been used for the explicit dynamics step. This
is sometimes necessary in shock simulations, since the stable time increment
automatically calculated by the code may still be too large for an accurate
solution.
11. Now add the incident wave load in the dynamic explicit step. Specify that the
amplitude given is a pressure amplitude, defined as a step function, and that the
wave property is planar. Specify the load both on the solid and the fluid
interfaces. The option to invoke this feature is given below. Enter it in the input
file exactly as it appears:
*INCIDENT WAVE INTERACTION, PRESSURE AMPLITUDE=STEP, PROPERTY=PLANE

shell-fluid, source, standoff, -1.0E-4

fluid-shell, source, standoff, -1.0E-4

12. Add history output requests. For node sets, leading-edge, and trailingedge, request output of variables U, V, and A. They are displacement, velocity,
and acceleration respectively. The default frequency will be used, which is to save
output at 200 equally spaced intervals during the analysis. The syntax is:
*OUTPUT, HISTORY

*NODE OUTPUT, NSET=node_set

variables

13. The modifications are now complete; save the modified input file. Use the
following command to run the Abaqus/Explicit analysis with double precision:
abaqus job=inf-cyl-noref double

Look at the status file (.sta) while the analysis is running to monitor its
progress. You can also monitor the stable time increment size, which for this step
remains constant at the fixed value specified. This analysis requires small time
increments, in order to retain accuracy and stability. This is why most underwater
shock analyses are better suited for Abaqus/Explicit rather than Abaqus/Standard.
14. Once the analysis is complete, open the ODB file in Abaqus/Viewer.
15. Display a contour plot of the model. Use the Results Tree to display the SHELL
part instance alone (expand the Instances container underneath the output
database named inf-cyl-noref.odb, and click mouse button 3; from the menu
that appears, select Replace).
Animate the Mises stress history in the shell (AnimateTime History). The
shock front can be seen to affect the leading edge first and pass gradually over the
whole structure until it reaches the trailing edge. The wave nature of the front can
be seen from the alternating high and low stress regions passing over the
structure. Figure W4-4 shows the Mises stress in the shell 2.6 seconds after the
shock encounters the leading edge.

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Figure W4-4 Mises stress in the shell after 2.6 seconds.

16. Display the FLUID part instance alone. Change the current field output variable to
POR (ResultField Output) and animate the result contours. The dynamics of
the shock front can be easily seen in the sequence of plots shown in Figures W45, W4-6 and W4-7. As the shock wave moves over the structure and the
surrounding fluid, it loses energy into the fluid due to non-reflective boundary
condition. The contours show how the POR maximum decreases with time.
Notice how the wave reaching the radiating boundary is not reflected back into
the mesh. The smoothness of the pressure contours in the vicinity of the boundary
is an indication of the effectiveness of the absorbing condition. Jagged or rough
contours indicate that the boundary is too close to the structure, and should be
moved further away, implying that a larger fluid mesh should be used to analyze
the problem. In general, enough fluid should be used to capture the added mass
effect of infinite surrounding fluid in the physical problem.

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Figure W4-5 Acoustic pressure in the fluid after 0.6 seconds.

Figure W4-6 Acoustic pressure in the fluid after 1.4 seconds.

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Figure W4-7 Acoustic pressure in the fluid at the end of the analysis.
17. Another important output variable in shock analyses is the velocity history at
critical points in the structure. These indicate the severity with which the shock
has influenced the structure and perhaps compromised its integrity. Create an XY
plot using the saved history data (ResultHistory Output). Plot the V1 velocity
component for one node from the set TRAILING-EDGE and one node from the
set LEADING-EDGE. This plot is shown in shown in Figure W4-8. Note that the
plot has been optimized for display purposes, and that the frequency of plot
markings is 8 times less than the frequency at which results were extracted. This
plot clearly illustrates the time delay in the response of the trailing edge due to the
finite shock speed. Notice that the shock tends to be its severest immediately upon
impingement on the structure, and then begins to dissipate energy mitigating its
effect on the shell. The choice of time increment size and damping will have an
effect on the nature of these histories. If you have time after completing this
workshop, investigate the effect of changing the time increment size and the bulk
viscosity. Remember to run all shock analyses using double precision to further
improve the accuracy and suppress numerical oscillations.

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Figure W4-8 Velocity histories at the leading and trailing edges of the shell.
18. If time permits, run the same analysis in Abaqus/Standard, and compare the run
times and results between the two solvers. An Abaqus/Standard input file is
provided (inf-cyl-noref-standard.inp). The results do not differ
significantly, but the analysis time does.
Case 2: Infinite Cylinder with bottom reflection
In this case, we study the effect of adding a single reflecting surface to the problem. You
can easily extend this to multiple surfaces. The main difference between this case and the
previous one is that here we will assume that the explosion occurs relatively close to the
structure, and hence we will specify a spherical wave front. This is a modeling decision
that is for the user to decide. The effect of reflecting surfaces is handled in Abaqus by
using imaging techniques where the incident pressure wave is made up of both primary
and image source contributions with the appropriate time delays calculated automatically.
The cylinder geometry and the fluid properties are the same as those defined for the
previous case. While the structure is symmetric, the loading is not on account of the
reflecting plane. Therefore we do not use symmetry in this case. The full cylinder model
is shown in Figure W49. A single charge is located on the X-axis 10 units away from the
cylinder (Z-) axis. The bottom surface is located 4.6904 units below the cylinder axis. It
is assumed that 80% of the incoming wave is reflected off the bottom surface. The model
consists of 72 4-node quadrilateral shell elements and 2880 AC3D8R acoustic elements.
The standoff point is placed along the X-axis, at the point where the structure and the
fluid are in contact.

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Figure W4-9 Full cylinder model.

1. Open the file inf-cyl-ref.inp. This file is incomplete and needs some
modifications. Since you have already created sets, surfaces, etc in the first part of
this workshop, you will not do so again. This section focuses on the differences
between the previous case and this one.
2. First add the structural boundary conditions. The only mechanical constraints
required for this case are the ones that constrain degrees of freedom 3 through 5
for the node sets BACK and FRONT.
3. Notice that TYPE=SPHERE has been used on the *INCIDENT WAVE
INTERACTION PROPERTY option in this model. In the previous case, the
wavefront was planar.
4. The reflective properties of the plane must be described. We know that the plane
reflects 80% of the incoming waves. Add the *INCIDENT WAVE
REFLECTION option as a suboption of *INCIDENT WAVE INTERACTION
within the step definition. Remember that the normal direction must point away
from source point. This means that the normal direction for the reflecting plane is
(0, 1, 0). The reflecting plane is located 4.6904 units below the charge. The
syntax needed is:
*incident wave reflection
distance_from_charge, normal_direction_cosines, reflection coefficient

5. Once you have made the above changes, submit the analysis using:
abaqus job=inf-cyl-ref double

6. Monitor the progress of the analysis by looking at the status (.sta) file. Once the
analysis has completed successfully, open the output database (ODB) in
Abaqus/Viewer and examine the results.
7. In a simple model such as this one, we can compare the results obtained using the
reflecting surface to those obtained by replacing the reflecting plane with another
charge. This charge is called the image charge and is internally generated by
Abaqus whenever a reflecting surface is included. A model with this image

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charge has been created for you so that you can compare results from the two
types of approaches. Open the file inf-cyl-2ch.inp, and review its contents.
8. Notice that there are two *INCIDENT WAVE INTERACTION PROPERTY
options in this input file. The first is named SPHERE and is exactly the same as
before. In addition, there is another one called IMAGE. The source point for this
image charge is below where the reflecting plane was in the previous case, at the
same distance below the plane as the primary charge is above. The standoff point
is located on the line joining the image source point to the center of the circle
representing the cylinder. In order to get the time delay due to reflection correctly
computed, the image standoff is positioned such that the distance from the image
source to the image standoff is the same as that between the primary source and
the primary standoff. In addition, we know that the reflecting plane was reflecting
80% of the incoming energy. So we scale the magnitude of the image source by
0.8. Once this is done, the results obtained using this modeling approach are
identical to those of the previous analysis.
9. Run this analysis using abaqus job=inf-cyl-2ch double and look at the
results. You should find that the results are exactly the same as those of previous
job. Either of the two approaches can be used in a general situation.
Note: Complete input files are available for your convenience. You may
consult these files if you encounter difficulties following the instructions
outlined here or if you wish to check your work. The input files are named
inf-cyl-noref-complete.inp
inf-cyl-ref-complete.inp

and are available in the working directory for this workshop.

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