The capabilities of Abaqus as a design tool are widely known, but it is also a very effective tool for failure analysis and forensic engineering. This paper examines two case studies in which Abaqus/Standard was used to assist in determining the cause of failure. In the first instance, a motorcycle wheel was found severely deformed and broken after an accident. At issue was whether the wheel failure was caused by impact with the road after a “wheelie” or a concrete block after loss of control. Abaqus/Standard was used to simulate these loading conditions, which required contact and highly nonlinear material behavior.
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