Abaqus/Explicit 2019 Now Supports C3D10 Tetrahedral Elements

Abaqus/Explicit has long required second-order tetrahedral elements to be of the C3D10M (the ‘M’ stands for modified) element type. This has now changed — true second-order C3D10 elements are available!

C3D10 elements in Abaqus/Explicit:

• Are true quadratic elements (“modified” elements are a special case of “numerical composite”)
• Are higher accuracy than their first-order, linear (C3D4) counterparts
• Are higher accuracy than their “modified” (C3D10M) counterparts
• Are recommended over C3D10M by Dassault Systèmes
• Have a bigger stable time increment than C3D10M
• Are computationally less expensive than C3D10M
• Support all the same loadings, material behaviors, and boundary conditions as do the existing solid continuum elements (C3D8R, C3D10M, C3D6, etc.)
• Are also supported in STD-to-XPL and XPL-to-XPL import
• Are not supported with selective subcycling

Stress Test: Comparing Element Formulations

Stress Test: Stable Time Increment

Abaqus 2020 is now available!

See our release blog post to learn what’s new in Abaqus 2020 and how to download.