Welcome to the conforce documentation!
Conforce computes nodal configurational (or material) forces from the displacement, stress, and energy density fields for finite elements. It is implemented as a Python 3 package and as an Abaqus plug-in. The implementation is based on the paper “On material forces and finite element discretizations” by Mueller [1]. Configurational forces correspond to the change in the energy density when some geometry measure is changed. A common application of configurational forces is in fracture mechanics, where they can be used to obtain the energy release rate of cracks.
How to read the documentation
The Readme section describes how to install and use the Python 3 package and the Abaqus plug-in. Conforce supports 3D elements and 2D plane strain elements for static loads. Plane stress elements are supported with a simplification. The Supported element types section provides a complete list of supported element types. The theory section describes in detail how configurational forces are computed. Example 1 - Two-phase bar provides a detailed walkthrough for the Abaqus plug-in. Example 2 - CT-specimen with linear elastic material behaviour and Example 3 - CT-specimen with elastic-plastic material behaviour use the Abaqus plug-in within an automated script to compute the J-integral for a crack. The library references (conforce, conforce_abq, conforce_gen) contain documentation for each function. The Contributing section is intended for developers who want to add new features or fix bugs.
Table of Contents
Getting started
Theory
Examples
Library references
Appendix