I asked a RCAS expert from Army, Dr. Jimmy Ho. His answer is below:
RCAS has two beam elements available to users. The inputs to the Geometrically-exact Composite Beam (GCB) element are already in the same format as the outputs of VABS, so no translators are required (with the caveat that the coordinate systems of the GCB element and the VABS calculations are consistent with each other). The inputs to the NonLinearBeam (NLB) element may be calculated from outputs of VABS, so a translator would be helpful; however, I am unaware of any publicly available translators. Note that NLB elements are based on Hodges-Dowell theory, which was revolutionary when it was first presented (early 1970s) but was derived with many limiting approximations (e.g., isotropic materials, assumptions of the ordering scheme shouldn't be violated, beam axis needs to be elastic axis). The GCB elements are based on Hodges' later geometrically-exact theory which removes many of those approximations, so that I'm certain that Hodges himself would recommend that RCAS users use the GCB elements over the NLB elements if given a choice.
Dana Frye @ on — Edited @ on
Is anyone aware of a publicly available translator, to convert VABS output to a format that can be read by RCAS?
Wenbin Yu @ on
I asked a RCAS expert from Army, Dr. Jimmy Ho. His answer is below:
RCAS has two beam elements available to users. The inputs to the Geometrically-exact Composite Beam (GCB) element are already in the same format as the outputs of VABS, so no translators are required (with the caveat that the coordinate systems of the GCB element and the VABS calculations are consistent with each other). The inputs to the NonLinearBeam (NLB) element may be calculated from outputs of VABS, so a translator would be helpful; however, I am unaware of any publicly available translators. Note that NLB elements are based on Hodges-Dowell theory, which was revolutionary when it was first presented (early 1970s) but was derived with many limiting approximations (e.g., isotropic materials, assumptions of the ordering scheme shouldn't be violated, beam axis needs to be elastic axis). The GCB elements are based on Hodges' later geometrically-exact theory which removes many of those approximations, so that I'm certain that Hodges himself would recommend that RCAS users use the GCB elements over the NLB elements if given a choice.
Dana Frye @ on
Much appreciated, thanks for reaching out!