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ATENA Troubleshooting manual

1. In the case of geometry created in older ATENA versions sometimes the mesh is not generated for a macroelement and an error is reported In this case it is necessary to open the problematic macroelement for editing and close it again by clicking OK i e recreating it is not required unlike in 3 4 3 3 3 4 Ihave a bug when I click on the button Generate in order to generate the mesh I get the following error CCFEModelGenerateExc T3D generator error code 10 Source line 157 file Sources T3d atena_cpp cpp last modified at Fri Nov 19 13 5139 2010 Typically this error occurs when there are wrong meshing settings e g mesh compatibility set for a contact between macroelements with incompatible meshing parameters or for geometry which can not be meshed with the mesh settings like a ME with many joints just 0 1mm apart to be meshed with 10cm elements You can find a reference of the mesh generator error codes and other details in the T3D Manual 15 You may also need to adjust the model precision see also 3 3 8 If you can not find the problem source please send us the model cc3 file ZIPped and your ATENA User ID WR as instructed in 2 1 1 It is the best choice to build a lot of simple macroelements preferably objects with 6 faces instead of one only big an complicated so that you can easily find the wrong one and rebuild it 47 Troubleshooting 3 3 5 When itry to run the analysis I get the Illegal element
2. The monitors defined in ATENA 3D are available in AtenaWin while the analysis is running but with a few limitations 1 you only see their internal names not human readable 2 they are defined after iteration not after step However both issues can easily be solved through simple edits of the inp file for 1 replace the string in the monitor definition with something legible e g OUTPUT NAME M_7FFD2680_E750_ 4160 A59B_5486642AD30A with OUTPUT NAME Disp Xtop For 2 replace MONITOR EACH ITERATION with MONITOR 2 EACH STEP in all monitor definitions Importing results into the ATENA Engineering 3D Postprocessor To import the binary step result files into ATENA 3D for post processing use the Files Open other Results by step menu command Of course you can also post process the results in AtenaWin 55 Troubleshooting 4 3 1 2 Models from ATENA 2D analyzed in AtenaConsole With a mode prepared in ATENA Engineering 2D there is normally no advantage in running your 2D analysis in AtenaWin or AtenaConsole maybe the latter for maximum speed and that is usually not a problem for 2D models Moreover to get the whole inp from ATENA 2D is not as easy as from ATENA 3D you would need to copy paste each step one by one or copy the first and then replicate it manually see section 5 3 5 Input File Editing in 2 An additional issue are monitoring points definitions which are not included in the Editing INP file win
3. 1 bar with bond or 2 volume and interface elements In both cases symmetry can often be exploited to reduce the model size 1 2 1 4 2 2 12 1 Bar with bond This approach is typically easier however please remember the discrete reinforcement elements have no bending nor shear stiffness i e they only have axial response 25 Troubleshooting Therefore additional work is required if bending or shear response of the anchor bar plays a significant role see section 2 2 10 See also 2 2 11 for general information related to defining reinforcement bond As applying load directly to a reinforcement point in the air is problematic the following trick is recommend add a small elastic cube or pyramid around the bar end make sure there is no slip checked for that bar end and apply the load force or displacement to a point of the elastic member If you wrap the free bar end into a small elastic volume with Young modulus corresponding to steel or even 2 20x higher the deformations of the elastic volume are going to be negligible compared to other deformations Please note you may need to fix lateral movements of the wrap If the pyramid cube with the bar endpoint is allowed to move to the sides without any resistance do not forget the 1 D bars only have axial stiffness it is no problem in tension but of course in compression e g when simulating cyclic loading when moving to the side has no resistance and compressing the bar
4. S x E ctosat1001 1 00 00010 E ciosar1101 1 00 00010 Fig 2 2 Example of conditions intersecting on an edge recommended definition 2 1 13 A monitoring point shows no value the program gives me an error on reading a monitor value The 2 most frequent problem sources related to monitoring in a model are the following 1 There is no Reaction in a point where an external force is applied Define a monitor for External force On the other hand in case of prescribed displacement or a support define the monitoring point to record Reaction 2 The monitor has to be defined at the same point where the support or load is applied 2 1 14 Problem with some graphics drivers Some nVidia graphics cards and other generally gaming office cards do not work correctly errors e g in rendering the colour scale For correct display keep return to the nVidia 7 x x x drivers or decrease the HW acceleration to max the 2nd position Disable all but basic accelerations with drivers 8 x x x 9 x x x and 16x xx including 182 50 6 14 11 8250 Graphics cards designed for CAD e g nVidia FX series or ATI FireGL FirePro series are recommended for ATENA see also 2 1 6 I plan to buy a new PC to run ATENA on it what do you recommend If you have a system with both integrated graphics energy saving and discrete performance we recommend disabling the automatic switching and permanently enabling the discrete ca
5. each iteration costs more but good balance may be found faster at the end 2 1 9 1 Reinforcement buckling For 1 D reinforcement bars and cables which only have axial stiffness buckling can not be precisely considered the same way as for the other element types i e implicitly through the geometry as explained above You can disable the Active in compression box to account for buckling In most situations this simplified approach works well and the results are on the safe side Bars through the air If you have a bar passing through the air between 2 volumes please keep in mind it can only transfer tension Compressive load typically results in lateral displacement if not blocked by other means as the bar has no bending nor shear stiffness and the axial length change is negligible such a segment provides no resistance in compression see also 2 2 12 3 One can see this as ideal buckling being considered for bar segments not embedded in any volume material ATENA 10 2 1 10 The tensile or compressive stresses exceed the tensile or compressive strength or yield stress what is wrong 2 1 10 1 Extrapolation In most cases this is due to extrapolation from integration point to the surface nodes This is usually observed in regions with steep gradients and can be 30 or similar see Fig 2 1 for an example You can look at the values at integration points select in internal points and show and label in the t
6. general c ssscssssssssessssccsssssccsessssssesssssssssascsscesssescsssceasssncesessnsessesnes 45 3 1 1 TOW toapply cy lic load scsesssiidcsnsiass esrtinneanoneieinnaitannnta mn amnehenanayalionamunyaete 45 3 1 2 Display problems with Desktop Composition in Windows Misto eene 45 3 1 3 The analysis stops with the message Error when saving results External EXCEPTION OGD 362 EE 45 iii Troubleshooting 3 2 ATENA Engineering 20 E 46 3 2 1 Error messages during analysis Canvas does not allow drawing Invalid pointer operation or Control PN_Middle has no parent WINGOW sessessesssssessssssssssssssssncscencesceneens 46 3 2 2 Only X stresses strains displayed during ANALYSIS sssssssssssssscnsensessessssesseessseteensesees 46 3 3 ATENA Engineering Zeg ett geed 46 3 3 1 Problem restoring minimized ATENA 3D WINGOW een 46 3 3 2 Problem creating an opening More than two surfaces are connected to the EE 46 3 3 3 Problem meshing geometry created in older ATENA verslonz EE 47 3 3 4 havea bug when click on the button Generate in order to generate the mesh I get the following error CCFEModelGenerateExc T3D generator error code 10 Source line 157 file Sources T3d atena_cpp cpp last modified at Fri Nov 19 13 5139 2010 BEE 47 3 3 5 When try to run the analysis get the Illegal element type specified for the shell plate macroelement x quadratic brick This error is given for all the shell GE DE 48 3
7. into this simple format 2 3 Older issues This section could be called an archive of general problems believed to be solved in the current ATENA version 2 3 1 Problems in Windows Vista When installing in Windows Vista make sure to enable the Run as administrator option before starting the installation if you encounter problems during the installation or when starting the installed program In ATENA version 4 and later the installer request the right escalation through UAC automatically 2 3 2 Principal strains in 3D material models may show wrong values in the post processor The shear terms are not divided by 2 in the calculation of principal values This affects only the output values In the calculation of 3D material models the principal strains are calculated correctly Problem fixed in version 1 1 2 2 3 3 Principal stresses in 2D material models may show wrong values in the post processor This does not affect the calculation but only the output of results Problem fixed in version 1 1 2 2 3 4 Problem with some very old parallel hardlocks in ATENA 3 3 0 Some very old parallel hardlocks pre 2000 originally supplied with SBETA do not work properly in ATENA 3 3 0 If you experience crashes while generating the FE mesh or starting the analysis ask for a new HW key you can choose parallel or USB See 2 4 12 for problems with newer hardware keys 2 3 5 Return algorithm of the plasticity model has changed in ver
8. 1 check the deformed shape of the model to verify that the model behavior corresponds to the expected one If not verify the applied loads boundary conditions material parameters etc 2 change the solution parameters for the problematic steps to Stiffness type Elastic predictor Update stiffness Assemble Stiffness Each step This effectively means using modified Newton Raphson method with initial stiffness rather than the default tangent stiffness 3 reduce the step size for the critical steps or use the solution parameters Repeat No Converged Step This parameter is available only in ATENA Science GiD See also 2 2 22 on detecting structural collapse in the analysis and 2 4 2 on conditional break criteria 2 1 20 Can model a steel structure in ATENA The primary target of ATENA is modeling the behaviour of concrete including reinforced and pre stressed and similar materials and the steel material models are intended for reinforcement 1 D bars smeared and smaller steel parts von Mises We agree other software packages are better more comfortable for nonlinear analysis of steel structures however in some situations modeling large steel members or even a 15 Troubleshooting steel structure can make sense In that case it is good to know the limitations and how to overcome them see 2 2 6 and 2 2 10 for more information on modeling reinforcement Buckling and other effects of nonlinear geometry are implicitly conside
9. 3 6 When starting the analysis the message CCFEModelExc Can not create contact elements on Contact contact XXX Refine mesh in the neighbouring macroelementssappedis sasse ee ee 48 3 3 7 How can lapply triangular or trapezoidal load in ATENA 2 een 48 3 3 8 Problems with nonplanar surfaces joints not inside macroelements etc 48 3 4 Older ATENA Engineering iSSUCS secssessesssscsscssssssssseccsscenccsecsssssuscsecsuscascsusesecsscescessensees 49 3 4 1 When start ATENA 2D or 3D in Windows 8 1 I get error messages complaining about COUNTRYSIGNTOINT invalid COUNDTRYSIGN voluel EEN 49 3 4 2 Problem Fix for ATENA v3 3 0 installation EEN 49 3 4 3 Mesh generation errors for some mgcroelements EEN 49 3 4 4 Problems with models involving SPHiNS sssesssserssssssssssssssssssssssssssscsssescssssscssceseseeses 49 3 4 5 Problem with automatic creation deletion Of Interioces EEN 49 3 4 6 Dead weight was not correctly applied in analysis in ATENA 2DATN 50 EAE T E Y A E EEEE AEE 50 3 5 1 SARA Studio 3D can not start ATENA analysis ENEE 50 3 5 2 SARA Studio does not work with ATENA 5 0 0 pDre relegee een 50 A JATENA SCIENCE cccsicsccesiscssscsedssoesssacsessssdsssosbssseansotceacsenisesssoas easeusbecsseasseecsvesecssenssece 51 4 1 1 Numerical problems with temperature dependent material properties Fire or otherth rm llodd geeiert 51 42 NL icusiaieihatadinatinenpeasdaeste aor aa a 51 4 2 1 Some GiD models and examples need
10. 3 7 How can l apply triangular or trapezoidal load in ATENA 3D In ATENA Engineering 3D triangular and trapezoidal loads are not supported by the GUE unlike ATENA Engineering 2D where one can define quadrilateral loads on lines see the listbox Type in the Line load dialog or ATENA Science where one can define linear gradients for most load types by specifying the coefficients in the ATENA GiD interface although this is not as comfortable as specifying point values Probably the easiest way to apply such a load is to create an elastic trapezoidal macroelement with a low elastic modulus typically 1 20 1 100 of the E of concrete and zero Poisson s ratio and apply a body force corresponding to the desired trapezoidal load 3 3 8 Problems with nonplanar surfaces joints not inside macroelements etc If ATENA 3D complains about nonplanar surfaces or joints not located inside macroelement or similar you may need to increase the number of decimal digits from the default of 4 to 5 Please note the Decimal digits setting in ATENA 48 General Analysis information Global can only be increased i e changed from 4 to 5 but not from 5 to 4 make sure to have a backup copy of your model before changing the value Please keep in mind that increasing this value also has influence on the automatic detection of contacts between macroelements planarity checks and other things Setting a too high value may lead to severe problems with
11. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Cervenka V Jendele L Cervenka J 2013 ATENA Program Documentation Part 1 Theory Cervenka Consulting 2013 Cervenka V and Cervenka J 2011 ATENA Program Documentation Part 2 1 User s Manual for ATENA 2D Cervenka Consulting 2011 Cervenka V and Cervenka J 2011 ATENA Program Documentation Part 2 2 User s Manual for ATENA 3D Cervenka Consulting 2011 Kabele P Cervenka V and Cervenka J 2010 ATENA Program Documentation Part 3 1 Example Manual for ATENA Engineering Cervenka Consulting 2010 Cervenka V Cervenka J and Janda Z 2011 ATENA Program Documentation Part 3 2 Example Manual for ATENA Science Cervenka Consulting 2011 Cervenka J 2001 ATENA Program Documentation Part 4 1 Tutorial for ATENA 2D Cervenka Consulting 2001 Cervenka J Proch zkov Z 2010 ATENA Program Documentation Part 4 2 Tutorial for ATENA 3D Cervenka Consulting 2010 Janda Z and Cervenka J 2009 ATENA Program Documentation Part 4 3 Tutorial for Construction Process in ATENA 2D Cervenka Consulting 2009 Proch zkov Z Cervenka J Janda Z Pryl D 2013 ATENA Program Documentation Part 4 6 Tutorial for ATENA GiD Cervenka Consulting 2013 Cervenka V and Niewald J 2005 ATENA Program Documentation Part 5 ATENA FEMAP User s Guide Cervenka Consulting 2005 Cervenka J and Jendele L 20
12. Analysis 2 1 3 What is SBETA SBETA was our very first product developed in 80 s for DOS operating system It was a first user friendly non linear FE software package on the market for non linear finite element analysis of concrete and reinforced concrete structures It could have been used to analyse beams walls reinforcing details and all other civil engineering structures which could be idealized as two dimensional problems 7 Troubleshooting 2 1 4 Can l analyze 3D structures with ATENA Yes ATENA version 3 and later can be used to analyse 3D structures in a native graphical environment of ATENA Engineering 3D see 3 In addition since ATENA version 4 scripts for interfacing the ATENA software with the general purpose finite element pre and post processor GiD versions 8 to 11 are part of the standard ATENA installation ATENA Science see 14 Scripts for interfacing ATENA with FEMAP version 7 see 10 are available upon request 2 1 5 Are there any solved examples There are a few tutorials in PDF format in the Documentation subdirectory 6 7 8 9 the corresponding models and many other example models are installed into the Examples subdirectory typically c Program Files CervenkaConsulting AtenaV4 Examples ATENA v4 or c Users Public Documents ATENA Examples ATENA v5 The most important ones are described in the Example Manuals 4 5 Some of them are also included in Demo installation whi
13. How can import the geometry from my CAD the model from my other FEM 34 23 leg 35 2 3 1 Problems in Windows Miete scevsstcsncuseccss axinssdacesacedvountssdsstinccdscsucssententbrectaseabbinndtteckenceas 35 2 3 2 Principal strains in 3D material models may show wrong values in the post PV OGOSS TEE 35 2 3 3 Principal stresses in 2D material models may show wrong values in the post del 35 2 3 4 Problem with some very old parallel hardlocks in ATENA 3 30 neen 35 ATENA ii 2 3 5 Return algorithm of the plasticity model has changed in version 330 35 2 3 6 CC3DNonLinCementitous3User material Changed in version 3385 36 2 3 7 CC3DCementitious material and CC3DNonLinCementitious materials may show Stronger behaviour in version 20 1 36 2 3 8 Fatigue analysis gives different result since version 5 1 3 OF 5 3 10 vss 36 2 4 ATENA Kernel Messages and Problems ENEE 36 2 4 1 Outof memory error during ATENA onalhel ee 36 2 4 2 get the message The execution is killed due to violation of stop iteration criteria whatdoesitmeah iieinienninenenannneiniiani aeaaee o asaini 37 2 4 3 I get the message Warning Node NNN dof D has probably excessive value XXX XXX used in element id EEE group id GGG NAME leese 37 2 4 4 Igetthe warning Invalid master slave during analysis what is wrong 37 2 4 5 During calculation I get the warning Redundant needless LHS BCs detected for the following u node_id do_id they will be ignored
14. This modeling can capture bending very well depending on the number of shell internal integration layers but only in the shell local Z direction Therefore it can be recommended for situations where the prevailing bending direction is known in advance 2 2 10 2 Shear To capture the shear response of a particular bar using volume elements is frequently the only way However as typically only a short segment of the bar undergoes significant shear it is usually possible to replace the rest of the bar with 1 D bar elements and only model the part of interest using volume elements ATENA 24 In some cases the shear contribution of longitudinal bars can be relatively well represented by defining smeared reinforcement in direction perpendicular to the bars with reinforcement ratio corresponding to the bar volume distributed evenly over the whole beam volume see also 2 2 6 a ZS W IT e W IT d Teseeenent Fig 2 7 Bar models left to right finite elements with full blue lines original circle and its divisions black dotted a original circular cross section b single discrete bar c 2 bars d 4 bars e square shell f hexagon from 2 shells 2 2 11 How can l take reinforcement bond into account By default a perfect connection between the 1 D reinforcement bars and the surrounding volume elements is assumed in ATENA In many cases this captures well the real response and no detailed bond modeling is needed e g if the mesh i
15. and similar structural parts build from masonry i e from bricks or stones connected with mortar is to determine some bulk material properties for the masonry combining the bricks and the mortar To verify and calibrate this bulk masonry material typically represented with the NLCem 2 material model or in 2D SBETA a small section of the masonry e g 2x2 bricks is modelled once in detail bricks interfaces representing the masonry connections and once with the bulk material 1 macroelement for each wall under several loading types tension compression horizontal shear at several levels of vertical compression or similar Then the bulk material is used for the analysis of the whole structure 27 Troubleshooting For smaller structures it may be possible to model all bricks discretely i e represent each brick with a separate Macroelement or volume or surface in case of 2D modelling and each gap with an Interface For the bricks again the NLCem2 or SBETA are the typical material models In some cases more likely with stones than bricks it is enough to model the bricks stones elastic Modeling the mortar with volume elements usually does not make sense and is also not very feasible because the very thin layer requires mesh refinement and results in a mesh with too many finite elements maybe except for some special studies of just a small region between 2 bricks If you are interested in seismic assessment of
16. are Hardlock not found Error 100 or Error 2 Please understand this driver only supports 32bit operating systems 1 Unplug the hardlock from the computer 2 Unzip the archive into some directory and run the Hinstall exe program In that directory type the following command hinstall r kp alldrv this should fully uninstall any drivers 3 Now install the driver using the same program in the same directory by typing the following command hinstall i 4 Now attach the hardlock to the computer Run the HASP upgrading utility haspprogXXX_Y 5 Try to run ATENA If there are problems finding the key please re install the latest HASP drivers http www cervenka cz downloads hasp driver command line installation v 5 86 or newer 2 4 14 2 RUS upgrade to ATENA v5 When upgrading from ATENA V4 to v5 you also need to update your hardware key to be able to use the new version We recommend doing so before starting the installer Please download the HASP Remote Upgrade utility RUS http www cervenka cz downloads ATENA500 RUS_MDTKB exe and follow the Remote Update Instructions for HASP Hardware Key 18 Basically you extract send us info about your HW key and we send you a file to upgrade your key for the new version Please understand that old keys HASP4 USB or Parallel can not be upgraded and have to be exchanged let us know if this is your case Install the latest drivers 43 Troubleshooting
17. as license server Follow the instructions from the GiD web http gid cimne upc es gid plus tools passerver to get the vendor key based on the Sysinfo corresponding to the server and your network license number and enter it in the PasServer When starting GiD on your workstation enter the IP address of the PasServer in the password box Make sure no firewall is blocking the communication between GiD and the PasServer similar to NetHASP Solution 2 in Section 2 4 12 4 2 5 GiD claims You don t have assigned Material 0 at Element xxxx For first number of unassigned element see dat file The message appears while the ATENA Input File inp is being written It informs you which element xxxx has no material assigned Use the Signal command to check where it is located Use the List command to see its properties layer higher entity ATENA 52 Typical reason for this message apart from the obvious one of forgetting to assign material to a volume or reinforcement is that GiD automatically creates mesh for surfaces not being part of any volume and lines not being part of any surface If you wish to keep them you can either manually assign mesh criteria No mesh to them or freeze the layer where they are placed after deleting the old mesh 4 2 6 Message inline number 63 error Materials CCShellMaterial and CCBeam3DMaterial are permited only for Element Hexahedron Please read section 5 3 2 Shell Material of the ATENA GiD Us
18. at least equal to tensile strength times the friction coefficient Le c gt ft mu If the interface tensile strength ft is higher or equal than the ft of the weaker of the materials being connected through it it does not make much sense to model the interface at all Then a perfect connection can be used instead because the concrete or rock or masonry or whatever next to the interface cracks under the same load as the interface or lower If there is no info about the interface properties and it is only known expected the interface should separate before the concrete or other material next to it cracks it is recommended to set the Interface ft to 1 2 or 1 4 of the tensile strength of the weaker material next to the interface The Interface cohesion C is recommended to be set to 1 2 times the Interface ft cases where C smaller than ft are very rare ATENA 28 A good starting value for both initial stiffnesses is about 10 times the stiffness of the adjacent finite elements i e Econcrete elem_size 10 For example 30 000 MPa 0 1 m 10 3 000 000 MN m for Kan and Ku The residual stiffness values for numerical purposes are recommended about 1 100 1 1000 of the initial values See Section 4 4 3 2 Interface material in ATENA 2D User s Manual 2 and 2 6 Interface Material Model in the Theory Manual 1 especially the paragraphs following Fig 2 38 Background note In general the lower reasonable limit for th
19. defined such that only 1 2 line search iterations are performed in each step Thus it is quite normal that it is not enough for this method to fully converge but it is not a problem and the main important thing is that at the end each analysis step converges see also 2 4 2 This you can for instance check in the menu Data Analysis progress information in ATENA 3D 2 4 8 Ihave this error CCINPExc Illegal real number 0 line N file data being processed Most likely you have set to zero some material parameter that has to be positive or vice versa e g 0 elastic modulus or aggregate size If you are not sure which one the fastest way to find out is to store the inp file Data Save INP files Together in ATENA 3D and look at the mentioned line N 2 4 9 CCInpFExc Syntax error reading ATENA input line N file If the analysis stops at the beginning with an error like CCInpFExc Syntax error reading ATENA input line 103 file C AtenaModels MyModel2 gid AtenaCalculation MyModel2 inp data being processed 1 818000e 02 Please open the Input File inp and look at the line referred in the message in the above example 103 Most likely you will find there the definition of some function used for the reinforcement e g xvalues 0 000E 00 1 808110e 02 1 800000e 02 1 818000e 02 39 Troubleshooting Please remember the values on the horizontal axis x have to be sorted from lowest to highest In this p
20. has it is clear what happens the wrap moves sideways without any resistance which makes the system ill conditioned To prevent this unrealistic response block restrict the displacements of the wrap volume to the sides i e perpendicular to the bar by supports or springs 2 2 12 2 Headed studs The simplest way to model a headed anchor is to activate the no slip setting for the bar end with the head If that is not precise enough a combination of 1 D and volume elements can be used see 2 2 12 5 2 2 12 3 Unbonded segments If bonding is prevented along some part of the bar e g by a plastic tube around the bar special attention is required There are several possible solutions to prevent connection to a part of the concrete and or a steel plate or whatever a divide the concrete into 2 parts enforce mesh compatibility on the internal contact and then edit the ATENA inp file manually see also 4 3 1 to only connect the bar to the bonded part of the concrete or b make a rectangular hole in the concrete and or plate or even better replace the plate by 8 macroelements with mesh compatibility on the contacts to be able to use brick elements 2 2 12 3 1 Notes on differences in bond properties along a reinforcement bar Generally different bond laws along a bar are not supported in ATENA If you really need this there is a possibility to define a multiplier function along the bar the function will scale the bo
21. if the convergence error at the end of a step exceeds 10 2 4 3 Iget the message Warning Node NNN dof D has probably excessive value XXX XXX used in element id EEE group id GGG name The deformation or temperature of the listed node is unusually high the number identifying the degree of freedom DoF identifies the direction DoFs 1 2 3 correspond to the global X Y Z directions in most cases except for shells where the local coordinate system is used In most cases this is a result of some problem in the model see 2 4 6 for suggestions what to check or structural failure 2 4 4 Igetthe warning Invalid master slave during analysis what is wrong This warning says that there are multiple boundary conditions constraints assigned to a node nodes This is in most cases NOT an error since only one is applied while others are ignored However a warning message is reported since the program does no know if it was really an intention and the situation may be a consequence of wrongly assigned BCs In a typical case this message occurs in regions where master slave conditions meet other boundary conditions like prescribed displacements e g on a boundary line with displacement constraint which has its end node connected to the neighbouring macroelement i e it belongs to the surface in contact with the other macroelement ATENA usually creates double nodes at macroelement boundaries one node for each macr
22. latest version released within your maintenance period You can use the ATENA Update Check utility to verify the dates If you have recently prolonged or renewed your maintenance make sure you have already applied the extension to your HASP key see 2 4 14 2 2 4 12 3 When using a network key network floating licenses Please see 2 4 13 2 4 12 4 When running ATENA remotely through Terminal Services To run ATENA installed on a terminal server using a Terminal Services connection a Network Key NetHASP is required The Net Key can be attached to a USB port of the terminal server or to another computer on the local network but in both cases the HASP drivers and the License Manager have to be properly installed on the computer where the key is attached 2 4 13 Problem with Network Key Symptoms when ATENA is started sometimes there are error messages complaining about the HW key although the server with the NetHasp License Manager and connected Network Key is accessible through the local network see also section 2 8 of the ATENA Readme file Reason 1a another network key is found first Reason 1b the network key is on a different subnet and therefore can not be found with the default search settings Solution 1 ATENA 5 0 2 and later Direct the remote key search to your Licence Manager server The HASb configuration file is now stored in CommonProgramFiles Aladdin Shared HASP haspIm ini eg C Program Files x86 Common
23. ratio and a direction If you assume the fibres orientation is isotropic you apply 1 7 of the total reinforcement ratio corresponding to the fibres in each of the 7 directions in 3D or 1 3 19 Troubleshooting in each of the 3 directions in 2D If you wish to take account for the dowel effect of individual fibres increase the 1 7 by an amount representing this effect of the fibres perpendicular to each direction 3 The NLCem2User material model see 2 2 4 If you have tried 1 or 2 and the results are not good enough you have to define all the functions for the NLUCem2User material 2 2 4 Iwant to use the user defined stress strain law of concrete to replace that used in ATENA program How can I do it You can use the CC3DNonLinearCementitiousUser2 NLcem2User material We recommend to download the example spreadsheet calculating the points for the tension softening function following the Hordijk law which can be used to define tensile behaviour close to the CC3DNonLinearCementititous2 NLCem2 material model from our web http www cervenka cz assets downloads Atena HordijkUser xls Please understand the localization strain and characteristic length are very important These parameters allow to reduce the mesh dependency in a way analogical to the NLCem 2 material Please see the figure at the right side of the NLCem2User Material dialog which includes the formula how the char length is used For more details see the ATE
24. support plates during shrinkage or pre or post tensioning During the application of shrinkage see also 2 2 8 or pre stressing or post tensioning see also 2 2 5 unrealistic cracks or other damage may sometimes develop near the support or loading plates To avoid or reduce these effects the following measures are recommended simplest first 1 Apply the same amount of volume change shrinkage also into the plates In case of reinforcement located near a plate you may need reduce the volume change applied to the plate for best results 2 Use contact elements GAP Interface see also 2 2 14 to connect the plates to the concrete 3 Add the plates after the shrinkage using Construction process 2 1 12 Strange deformations in a corner or on an edge If you experience unexpected displacements deformed shape of some corner s or points on an edge where different boundary conditions of the same type intersect please make sure you assign the correctly composed boundary condition to the edge line or corner point Example 2 surfaces one supported in X the other in Y Assign support in both X and Y directions to the edge common to both surfaces see Fig 2 2 ATENA 12 Background if the proper condition is not assigned to the intersection the ATENA kernel selects one of the 2 conditions for each node at the intersection and it is not easy to tell in advance which of them z z if BB ciopato101 1 00 00010 if
25. tension in case of von Mises material in 2 or 3 directions Oe 2 or 3 stresses have the same sign the maximum stress is larger than the uniaxial compressive strength or yield stress For details see section 2 2 7 and or the failure surface shape in the right figure at the Basic tab of the Steel von Mises material dialog and or the Theory Manual 2 1 10 3 Nonlinear geometry You may sometimes observe that the Von Mises Stress eg for bilinear steel with zero hardening exceeds the yield stress The reason for this discrepancy is the activation of the geometric nonlinearity in your model If the geometric nonlinearity is on then the program after each step converts the stresses according to the new updated deformed shape This may result in the small violation of the material criteria Von Mises which is then corrected during the next step To be subsequently again distorted at the end of the next step Actually the geometric nonlinearity is necessary only if you assume to have large displacement strain increment in a single step Even if the geometric nonlinearity is deactivated the program updates the coordinates during the deformation process so the geometric nonlinearity is captured as well as long as small load steps are used So the solution to your problem is to turn of the geometric nonlinearity This is done in the General Data Analysis information Solution in ATENA Engineering 3D 2 1 11 Unrealistic damage near loading
26. to Arc Length and new step interval should be defined with the appropriate loads These will be gradually applied until failure is detected when the Arc Length solution will start automatically reducing their level to trace the post peak response 2 2 23 Howto continue restart the analysis from a calculated step If you change the load step definitions or solution parameters in the middle of the analysis you do not need to restart the analysis from the beginning and calculate again also all the steps without any changes 2 2 23 1 ATENA Engineering In ATENA Engineering both 2D and 3D the GUE automatically recognizes which steps need to be re calculate after the modifications 2 2 23 2 ATENA Science when running from the ATENA GIiD Interface The ATENA GiD Interface also supports continuing the analysis from a previously stored step For more information please see the ATENA GiD User s Manual 14 Fig 5 78 Restart calculation options in problem data dialog 33 Troubleshooting 2 2 23 3 ATENA Science when starting the analysis manually If you are starting the analysis manually e g in ATENA Studio or AtenaConsole see also 4 3 1 you need to edit the ATENA Input File inp manually If you are running an Input File originally created from the ATENA GiD Interface there are predefined labels and commands for this purpose see the ATENA Studio User s Manual 13 3 4 Calculation Control Please understand the inp fil
27. to be precise force of the same size with the opposite sign the load stays there In this case it means you apply the vertical load divided in 5 10 load steps and then apply the horizontal displacements in the following steps Do not forget to apply the supports in all load steps See also 2 4 6 1 for recommendations about solution methods If you are interested in cyclic loading see 3 1 1 2 2 16 How can I model acompression only support with nonlinear springs For nonlinear springs it is generally recommend to define the inactive side of the working diagram as 1 100 1 1000 of the stiffness in the active direction For example if the compressive side of a compression only spring is 1 5000 you should define 29 Troubleshooting the tensile side 1 50 or 1 5 see Fig 2 8 Pay good attention to the spring direction as it also determines which direction corresponds to tension and which to compression If you have problems with springs in ATENA Engineering 3D please see also 3 4 4 _ 5000 0000 0 000E 00 0 0000 1 000E 00 50 0000 Stress MPa S 8 e g 1 000 00 4 500E 01 0 000E 00 E 4 500 01 1 000 00 D Fig 2 8 Example of nonlinear spring material 2 2 17 The analysis runs too long How can I speed it up To reduce the analysis running time using efficient modelling can make a substantial difference This includes 1 making use of symmetry 1 2 1 4 1 8 axial or even 2D model
28. type specified for the shell plate macroelement x quadratic brick This error is given for all the shell elements used Please set the shell macroelements to be meshed using quadratic brick elements 1 Make sure the macroelement geometry has six sides with four edges each replace complicated MEs with several simple ones 2 In Mesh Generation set the Elements to quadratic 3 In Mesh Macroelements set the Mesh type to Brick See also section 3 7 2 2 7 Shell Macroelements of the ATENA 3D User s Manual 3 3 3 6 When starting the analysis the message CCFEModelExc Can not create contact elements on Contact contact XXX Refine mesh in the neighbouring macroelements appears This message means there is not even a single complete element surface in the Slave surface of the contact and therefore the connection can not work To solve the issue 1 Make sure the side with smaller finite elements is the Slave see also ATENA 3D User s Manual 3 section 3 7 2 3 Contacts 2 Consider if you can set the contact to No Connection i e if it is just a random overlap or an unimportant border of a larger correctly connected contact see also 2 2 14 3 If the small contact is important refine the mesh at the Slave side to have at least one whole element surface in it 4 If the refinement results in a too fine mesh too many elements consider changing the geometry in a way to prevent the small or narrow contacts 3
29. with Desktop Composition in Windows Vista 7 In Windows Vista and 7 Desktop Composition has to be disabled if you notice display problems Right click on the ATENA 3D and 2D items in the start menu select Properties then the Compatibility tab Check the box Disable desktop composition in ATENA 4 2 7 5 0 2 this is handled automatically by the installer ATENA 5 0 3 and later should work with Desktop Composition enabled In some cases changing the display theme Control Panel Appearance and Personalization Personalization Theme to Windows Classic can also help with display problems In Windows 8 and 8 1 it is not possible to disable Desktop Composition for a program any more please update to ATENA 5 0 3 or later to work with these OS versions 3 1 3 The analysis stops with the message Error when saving results External exception E06D7363 This message typically means exceeding the free disk capacity or the maximum file size about 2GB After making sure there is enough space on your disk s both the one 45 Troubleshooting with the model directory and the one with the system temporary directory we recommend to reduce the model file size by only saving the results for selected load steps instead of for all steps e g only each Sth or 10th step or in case of cyclic loading for the max min and zero load points of each load cycle See also section 2 2 17 The analysis runs too long for general tip
30. 13 ATENA Program Documentation Part 6 ATENA Input File Format Cervenka Consulting 2013 Jendele L 2011 ATENA Program Documentation Part 7 AtenaWin Description Cervenka Consulting 2011 Bene and Mikolaskova J 2013 ATENA Program Documentation Part 12 User s Manual for ATENA Studio Cervenka Consulting 2013 Cervenka V Cervenka J and Janda Z 2013 ATENA Program Documentation Part 8 User s Manual for ATENA GiD Interface Cervenka Consulting 2013 Rypl D 2011 ATENA Program Documentation Part 9 T3D Triangulation of 3D Domains User Guide Czech Technical University in Prague and Cervenka Consulting 2011 Pryl D 2009 ATENA Program Documentation Part 10 User Material DLL Cervenka Consulting 2009 57 Troubleshooting 17 Cervenka Consulting Web 2013 http www cervenka cz ATENA Troubleshooting http www cervenka cz assets files atena pdf ATENA Troubleshooting pdf ATENA Known Issues http www cervenka cz products atena known problems Frequently Asked Questions http www cervenka cz faq Forum http www cervenka cz forum index php 18 Stano D 2013 ATENA Program Documentation Part 13 Remote Update Instructions for HASP Hardware Key Cervenka Consulting 2013 19 AmQuake Web 2014 http www amquake eu ATENA 58
31. D models it usually helps if you delete the mesh but not the mesh settings the fastest way is to change the global element size press OK and change it back If the file is still too big for email you can send it using some file transfer service UlozTo WeTransfer or similar In your email message please indicate the name of the program the program version that you are using your licence number ATENA WR which can be found for instance under user ID in the About dialog in version 4 3 1 and older or under the colour scale in the ATENA Studio structure window in v 5 0 1 and later and a short description of the problem Include a sketch and or photo of what you are modelling whenever possible Include any error or warning messages as text or screenshots best attached as png files which are more effective than jpg for this purpose and comfortable to handle than pictures embedded in documents 2 1 2 What is ATENA ATENA is a totally new generation of our program SBETA ATENA is a fully windows program with integrated pre post processing and finite element solution The post processing and pre processing is improved significantly In addition it contains many new materials solution methods and other capabilities as for instance options for 3D plane strain axi symmetrical analysis or shell elements You can learn more about ATENA on our ATENA page The name ATENA is an abbreviation for Advanced Tool for Engineering Nonlinear
32. De up to 5 1 2e and 5 3 1 You may need to adjust the parameters BETA_FATIGUE and KSI_FATIGUE to reproduce old results 2 4 ATENA Kernel Messages and Problems Error and Warning Messages reported by the ATENA kernel 2 4 1 Out of memory error during ATENA analysis First of all it has to be made clear that the Out of memory message refers to RAM not disk space There are many factors deciding about how close to the 2GB limit or 3GB in case of 64bit systems a 32bit program can get not only the physical memory available but also other SW running the graphics board the video or disk controllers drivers can occupy a large portion of the address space and divide it to smaller fragments etc If you can not make your model smaller e g by making use of symmetry or a coarser mesh etc see also section 2 2 17 The analysis runs too long you can switch from the standard direct band matrix solver LU to one of the sparse iterative solvers ICCG or DCG which have considerably lower memory requirements See section 3 7 1 1 Analysis information in the ATENA 3D Users Manual 3 for details Another way is to run the analysis in AtenaConsole instead of ATENA 3D or AtenaWin Since version 4 3 0 there are also 64bit variants of AtenaConsole AtenaWin and ATENA Studio since 5 0 0 included in installation then only the physical memory size is the limit See section 4 3 1 on instructions how to run AtenaConsole ATENA 36 2 4 2 Ig
33. Files Aladdin Shared HASP haspIm ini and the file format is also different from the old NetHASP ini The configuration can be created in the Sentinel Admin Control Center which is typically available at http localhost 1947 The network related settings can be found under Configuration Access to Remote License Managers Typically it is enough to just paste the license server IP address text or numeric to the largest textbox on that page Oe the address will be the only text in the box Please do not forget that Administrator rights are typically required to save the configuration into Program Files the full pathname of the configuration file displayed at the bottom of the configuration page Sample NetHasp configuration file hasp lm ini REMOTE broadcastsearch 0 aggressive 0 41 Troubleshooting serversearchinterval 30 serveraddr 192 168 x x It is also possible to define the settings only for one software batch code or vendor ID in Safenet Sentinel terminology by creating a file named hasp_vendorID ini For ATENA the filename is hasp_50699 ini The file is to be placed in Youserprofile A ppData Local SafeNet Sentinel Sentinel LDK hasp_50699 ini ee C Users ul AppData Local SafeNet Sentinel Sentinel LDK hasp_50699 ini for Windows Vista 7 8 or C Documents and Settings u1 Local Settings Application Data SafeNet Sentinel Sentinel LDK hasp_50699 ini for Windows XP The above files define the setti
34. If collecting the key information in RUS ends with an error first please make sure you are using the current HASP driver 6 56 as of May 2013 You can download it from the HASP Safenet inc web http www safenet inc com minisites SRM Downloads aspx s amp c End User amp p all amp o Windows amp t Ru ntime 26 Device Driver amp l all Sentinel HASP LDK Windows GUI Run time Installer Sentinel HASP HASP HL HASP4 Hardlock Sentinel LDK Windows 13 2MB 6 56 2013 03 20 Install the drivers then start the RUS Only connect the ATENA key Second if you have other keys for different programs connected please disconnect them before starting the RUS only keep the ATENA key connected Key firmware update Third some older HL keys may need a firmware update from version 2 16 to 3 25 to be applied prior to the license update Download the update utility from the HASP Safenet inc web http www safenet inc com sentineldownloads s firmware amp c all amp p all amp o all amp t all amp 1 all HASP HL Firmware Update Utility EXE file Sentinel HASP Win32 Win64 1 23 MB 2 16 to 3 25 2010 01 01 Unpack the archive connect the key and run the FirmwareUpdate exe utility then click Apply Update See Remote Update Instructions for HASP Hardware Key 18 for detailed instructions 2 4 15 I get the warning Zero RHS vector what is wrong This message means the right hand side of the equation system is null which is a conseque
35. If you plan to work with large models in ATENA Science 32GB RAM can make sense the ATENA 8 physical RAM is usually the limit for large models more RAM makes it possible to solve a larger model not improve speed for small ones 2 1 6 3 Processor Since version 5 1 1 multiple threads can be used for a single analysis however according to our experience with 4 and 6 core CPUs 8 and 12 instruction queues due to hyper threading for large models the speedup is almost 2 for 2 threads and about 4 for 8 threads for small models the parallel speedup gets even smaller if any at all Therefore if you can choose between a 4 core and a 6 core CPU with about the same CPU benchmark score we recommend to get the 4 core one The fastest and most expensive processors do not pay off in most cases but the cheap models Celeron from Intel and similar from AMD are generally not good for numerical tasks slow FPU small cache 2 1 6 4 Disk Recently we have good experience with hybrid disks SSHD combining e g 500GB HDD and 8GB SSD used as kind of cache 2 1 6 5 Efficient modelling Finally of course please do not forget that reducing the model as much as possible like using symmetry only modelling 1 2 1 4 or 1 8 or even 2D or rotational symmetry when possible smart meshing only refined where needed etc usually make much more difference in the analysis running time than different computers see section 2 2 17 The a
36. NA 4 3 1g with SARA or wait for the final release ATENA 50 4 ATENASCIENCE This section includes problems and solutions specific to ATENA Science a graphical environment for solving problems in Statics Creep Thermal and Dynamics 4 1 1 Numerical problems with temperature dependent material properties Fire or other thermal load Here are some general remarks with respect to Concrete Temperature Dependent material properties It is better to define the temperature dependency functions such that no parameter drops totally to zero We generally recommend not letting the parameters drop below 1 of the original value i e 0 01 It is mainly important to have a temperature dependence of fc ft and E eps_cp and of course eps L but the others can be left constant It is important to use the total formulation with about 20 steps It is also recommended to use the initial stiffness approach i e elastic stiffness and calculation each step See also the sections 2 4 2 2 4 5 on general numerical problems 4 2 ATENA GiD Problems related to the ATENA GiD interface and using GiD as Pre and Postprocessor in general 4 2 1 Some GiD models and examples need to be transformed Error in line 2 at C xxx yyy gid yyy uni system ATENA_SI_MN_AND_M is not defined Older GiD models including some examples distributed with ATENA need to be transformed to the new version of the ATENA GiD scripts If you get an Error in line 2 at x
37. NA Theory Manual 1 The following questions may arise when looking at the spreadsheet 1 How to get I_ch Is it the crack band size A possible way of setting the characteristic size L_ch and localization strain loc onset is to set the char size to the size of your strain gauge in the calibration experiment or to the element size used in the calibration analysis The localization onset should be set to the strain at peak stress for example in some FRC this max stress maybe a bit higher than the tensile strength Note you should use the characteristic size from the calibration model even if the mesh size is different in the final analysis However you may need to modify the Localization onset eps loc to reflect the differing element size Please also remember that as long as the localization onset is not reached the characteristic size has no influence You can read more on the characteristic sizes in the ATENA Theory Manual above all 2 2 3 Rankine Fracturing Model for Concrete Cracking around Fig 2 20 and 2 2 4 Plasticity Model for Concrete Crushing around Fig 2 21 2 In the material dialogue box how can I calculate the G Gc value in shear stiffness function of shear See the r_g column 3 What are the units used in the spreadsheet the strains eps are dimensionless the failure displacement w in meters ATENA 20 the last 2 columns sig ft and r_g are dimensionless they are relative values gi
38. al Z axis Stacking shells in thickness direction does not make much sense at least in a vast majority of cases As explained in the User s Manuals 3 14 a single shell element is enough even for bending regions unlike volume elements To improve precision increase the number of the internal shell layers instead 2 4 12 Hardware key not recognized HASP required key not found invalid user id check ATENA only running in Demo mode or similar First of all make sure the hardware key is correctly connected to a local USB port or through the network see also 2 4 13 Problem with Network Key and the drivers are installed you may wish to download the latest drivers from our web 17 or directly from http www safenet inc com Check if the key is not physically damaged and its light goes on when connected If this does not solve the problem the most common situations are described below If you have problems with the GiD license USB computer bound or network please see 4 2 4 Problems with GiD license USB or network floating 2 4 12 1 After upgrading from ATENA 4 3 1 or older to ATENA v5 Please see 2 4 14 2 ATENA 40 2 4 12 2 After updating from ATENA 5 0 0 or later to the current ATENA v5 If you have downloaded the latest installer please make sure your maintenance has not expired before the release date of the version If so please contact your ATENA distributor for an extension offer or re install the
39. ally zero volume please check the mesh problematic material settings e g interface properties wrong magnitude of elastic ATENA 38 modulus or similar If you are using temperature dependent material properties please also check section 4 1 1 If you use contact elements GAP interfaces please also check section 2 2 14 2 4 6 1 Solution methods Please note that in case of force loading up to failure or further you need to use the Arc Length solution method AL In all other situations i e displacement control pre or post peak or nominal force loading dead weight 100 service load etc use Newton Raphson N R The typical procedure is to load with N R up to some nominal load level 100 then continue overloading with AL Do not forget AL can scale the load increment applied in each step which makes monitoring even more important See ATENA Theory for details and background information If you can not find the cause please send us the model along with your ATENA User ID WR as instructed in 2 1 1 2 4 7 I get the warning Convergence criteria within line search not satisfied due to eta limit continuing super ordinate iteration during analysis what does it mean It is a warning about the line search iterations The Line search method is explained in the Theory Manual 1 in chapter 4 5 Line Search Method This method only helps to stabilize the convergence process Normally the solution parameters are
40. and one for monitoring the maximal deformations It should be understand that as the load increases the failure occurs and the structure cannot sustain the applied load If the load is constant or increasing the convergence cannot be reached This means that the structural collapse will exhibit itself as a failure to reach convergence see also 2 1 19 and 2 4 2 But our monitor for the loads will be still increasing as well as the monitor for deformations The monitor for deformations will be however increasing much faster so in addition to the convergence problems one can also observe a sudden change in the slope of the load displacement diagram This approach is however not very reliable since the convergence problems as well as the change in the load displacement diagram can have other reasons The convergence problems could result from using two large analysis steps or by numerical problems in the nonlinear solution The change of the load displacement slope can be a result of crack development or other nonlinear effects For the accurate detection of structural collapse it is therefore recommended to use Arc Length option in ATENA solution parameters This method starts automatically reducing the applied loads to capture the peak in the ultimate capacity The standard loading process could be for instance to use the standard Newton Raphson method for load steps up to the level of the design load Then the solution method should be switched
41. articular case the strain at yield 1 808110e 02 is greater than rupture strain 1 800000e 02 which is an obvious nonsense The most probable way this happened you have entered your function points in unsorted order Or you have changed the elastic part E yield and not updated the following points accordingly In any case please correct the function definition in the corresponding GiD dialog If the line does not belong to a function definition please check if the line generally makes sense see also 2 4 8 2 4 10 CCMaterialExtendedAExc FCO greater then FC in material material X The stress level when nonlinear plastic deformations start to develop is set higher than the compressive strength This typically happens if you significantly modify the generated material parameters for concrete The recommended procedure is to generate the material model for the closest concrete class or cube strength and only do minor adjustments to values you have measured or received from the manufacturer If you decide to change the values it is your responsibility to make sure the resulting set is consistent See the Theory Manual 1 for details about the material models In general it is recommended not to change any of the generated values unless you have a measurement or at least a good estimate 2 4 11 I get amessage that I can t understand Shell plate macroelement X contains more then a single layer of elements in the direction of the loc
42. ce Reactions Summation In ATENA Engineering you need to output the forces reactions at the line or surface see also 2 2 21 and sum them outside of ATENA e g in a spreadsheet Sometimes it is possible to replace the load support with one or a few point loads supports see 2 2 19 1 and record the load by monitoring the reaction in a single point or sum the reactions from 2 or just a few point supports If not you can either monitor the load in a point find the scale factor in the first step and multiply the value for the graph by this multiplier to see the total force Or you may use a trick add a small e g 1 1000 point force into another node maybe even in another direction and monitor that external force Then you know the multiplier from the beginning 2 2 19 1 Recommended alternative Point load and an elastic loading plate In general to make monitoring the reactions or loads easier we recommend to use point load support instead of line surface applied through an elastic loading support plate do not forget a point load or support applied directly into nonlinear material can lead to unrealistic local damage cracks plasticizations etc 31 Troubleshooting Although there are some situations e g water pressure or distributed load on a larger area when a surface load can not be avoided this replacement is possible in most cases 2 2 20 How can I see the numerical values of monitors and export them
43. ch anyone can download and try 2 1 6 Iplan to buy a new PC to run ATENA on it what do you recommend 2 1 6 1 Video card First of all we do not recommend integrated graphics systems e g Intel 965 the OpenGL drivers are often that bad that normal use of ATENA GiD or CAD in general is not possible We recommend video cards targeted for CAD users e g nVidia FX series ATI FireGL FirePro series Game cards work with small restrictions in most cases see 2 1 14 for details GPU cores CUDA can not be used for the analysis so far and this is not planned for close future 2 1 6 2 Memory Up to version 4 2 7 ATENA can only use max 2GB as all 32bit programs also in 64bit OS therefore we recommend 2 3GB RAM for single core processors but nowadays dual or quad core processors make more sense anyway One can then run 1 or 3 analyses simultaneously and prepare or post process another model at the same time Attention has to be paid to the memory access speed with dual channel Chipsets one has to have identical modules in the corresponding slot pairs otherwise the system can slow down a lot we have once had a quad core with mixed memory modules and 2 analyses at a time were already slowed down by waiting for the memory after upgrading to 4x 2GB four analyses run nicely Since version 4 3 1 x64 versions of AtenaConsole and AtenaWin are available ATENA Studio since v5 ATENA Engineering 2D 3D remain 32 bit only
44. dow Therefore it is generally not to be expected the extra work can be outweighted by the possible advantages of running the analysis in AtenaConsole or AtenaWin Post processing the results It is not possible to import the binary results files calculated in AtenaConsole or Win into ATENA 2D but if you do not like post processing in AtenaWin you can read them into ATENA 3D see Importing results into the ATENA Engineering 3D Postprocessor above 4 4 ATENA Studio This section is devoted to problems specific to the ATENA Studio 13 graphical environment for analysis runtime and post processing 4 4 1 After returning from Turbo mode or restoring a saved layout not all windows are restored Floating windows like for example graphs not anchored in the main window are not restored when returning from Turbo mode or restoring a saved layout However the diagram settings are not lost and the windows can be re opened from the View menu 4 4 2 Cannot read results for postprocessing CCException An error during serialisation of the model CCStructures If you get an error message when trying to create a project from calculated dynamic creep or transport results CCException An error during serialisation of the model CCStructures and the model is not displayed please select the corresponding Project type in the New project from result files dialog ATENA 56 REFERENCES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
45. e CERVENKA CONSULTING Cervenka Consulting s r o Na Hrebenkach 55 150 00 Prague Czech Republic Phone 420 220 610 018 E mail cervenka cervenka cz Web http www cervenka cz ATENA Program Documentation Part 11 Troubleshooting Manual Written by Dobromil Pryl and Jan Cervenka Prague 15 12 2015 Trademarks ATENA is registered trademark of Vladimir Cervenka GiD is registered trademark of CIMNE of Barcelona Spain Microsoft and Microsoft Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners Copyright 2000 2015 Cervenka Consulting s r o Troubleshooting Manual for ATENA CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION EEN O 2 GENERAL QUESTIONS MESSAGES PROBLEMS AND INSTRUCTIONS ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccee 7 2 1 EE 7 EA WERT 7 22 EE 7 21 3 WhatisSBETA scien ascii ee 7 2 1 4 Canl analyze 3D structures With ATENA see 8 EE 8 2 1 6 planto buy a new PC to run ATENA on it what do you recommend 8 2 1 7 Can Irun ATENA on Linux Can l install it on my Mac With OS K ee 9 2 1 8 understand the fixed crack model coefficient switches between fixed and rotated cracks Standard the value is 1 but What does that megn EEN 9 2 1 9 Does the non linear analysis of ATENA consider the geometrical nonlinearity second order effects like buckling OF npeckingl eege 10 2 1 10 The tensile or compressive stresses exceed the tensile or comp
46. e ee 22 2 2 7 How to include confinement in the analysis nee 23 2 2 8 How can include the influence Of sbrinkoge EEN 23 2 2 9 How can apply Meter sce akon Eege E 24 2 2 10 How can I take the bending and or shear contribution of reinforcement bars TREO TE 24 2 2 11 How can take reinforcement bond into ACCOUNT een 25 2 2 12 How can Model a pull out experlment ees 25 2 2 13 How can Seefe 27 2 2 14 have problems when using the Interface GAP material on contacts 28 2 2 15 How to model a load combination e g a constant vertical force during horizontal displacement applied until Toflure eessen 29 2 2 16 How can I model a compression only support with nonlinear springs 29 2 2 17 The analysis runs too long How can speed it Up een 30 2 2 18 My analysis results do not match the experiment expectations How can I at eene 31 2 2 19 How can I monitor a surface or line load ass scnecccucns caer ka otra ucceneelaliet 31 2 2 20 How can I see the numerical values of monitors and export them into a lr 32 2 2 21 How to get the nodal forces at 100 nodes as output in text file or other 32 2 2 22 How to detect a structural collapse or ultimate load copgclfy ee 33 2 2 23 How to continue restart the analysis from a calculated step eent 33 2 2 24 ATENA only offers translational supports How to specify conditions for hinge support rotations or block all rotations at the end ofa column ee 34 2 2 25
47. e interface material stiffness is about the stiffness of the less stiff neighbouring elements i e Econcrete elem_size The upper limit is about 1000 times the stiffness of the stiffer neighbouring elements i e Econcrete elem_size 1000 Of course if the element sizes on the 2 sides of the contact differ significantly the stiffer material is not necessarily the one with stiffer finite elements e g if there are large elements in steel and small elements in concrete the small concrete elements can be stiffer compared to the large steel ones Under the lower limit the elastic deformations of the contact above all in compression are larger than the elastic deformations of the adjacent layer of elements which leads not only to visual overlaps of the volumes in contact but can also unrealistically postpone nonlinearities plasticizations cracking etc in other parts of the model as the deformations may concentrate in the elastic interface displacements without producing any damage Exceeding the upper limit means large differences in the stiffness matrix which is not good for the numerics a too high condition number may completely break down the linear solver and result in convergence problems or wrong results 2 2 15 Howto model a load combination e g a constant vertical force during horizontal displacement applied until failure Loads are incremental in ATENA In other words unless you unload by applying a negative force or
48. e prescribed displacement in 2 points of the loading plate instead of only one and then sum the reactions 2 2 25 How can l import the geometry from my CAD the model from my other FEM With respect to imports we recommend trying to find a well working file format common to GiD and your other CAD or FEM GiD can import the geometry from many formats However our experience so far with imported geometries is that typically there are changes required to be able to reasonably mesh which at the end leads to importing points and most lines possibly also some surfaces and re doing most of the volumes and some surfaces Also re assigning all materials and boundary conditions after each import makes it typically faster to do the changes in GiD compared to importing another similar model In other words in most cases the most efficient way is to build the geometry in the modeller ATENA Engineering or GiD from scratch anyway For simple geometries the time spent fixing the volumes etc definitely exceeds the time to create the model ATENA 34 specifically for FEM from the beginning If the geometry is more complicated it can make sense to use imported joints instead of re typing or copy pasting their coordinates If you expect the need to use geometry from your CAD or FEM frequently you may also look at the IXT import in ATENA Engineering 3D maybe you can write some utility script to get the node coordinates and possibly somewhat more
49. e see 2 2 16 3 4 5 Problem with automatic creation deletion of interfaces In ATENA 3 3 1 and older interfaces were sometimes deleted or not created when a macroelement was added copied or deleted in ATENA 3D or not deleted when a macroelement was moved This is fixed in version 3 3 2 please upgrade Users of version 3 3 0 and newer with a valid maintenance agreement can download the upgrade online in the Downloads section 49 Troubleshooting With old data application of the corrected contact checking algorithm has to be triggered by adding and deleting a macroelement If your model has been created in version 3 3 2 or later please see 3 3 8 3 4 6 Dead weight was not correctly applied in analysis in ATENA 3D 4 1 x Body load dead weight was not correctly taken into account in ATENA 3D 4 1 x prior to 4 1 3g The problem did NOT occur in ATENA GiD AtenaWin or ATENA 2D A patch is available for download http www cervenka cz downloads atena 4 1 3g patch The problem is also solved in ATENA 4 1 4 3 5 SARA Issues related to our stochastic package SARA Structural Analysis and Reliability Assessment are handled in this section 3 5 1 SARA Studio 3D can not start ATENA analysis SARA Studio 3D can not start ATENA analysis in version 3 3 2 The analysis of the generated samples cc3 can be run manually Or upgrade to ATENA 4 1 1 or later 3 5 2 SARA Studio does not work with ATENA 5 0 0 pre release Please reinstall ATE
50. ensor results options The extrapolation settings for displaying the values in nodes and element nodes can be changed but only in AtenaWin AtenaConsole and not directly in ATENA 3D you can export the step results to a binary file Data Results manager Export results load the file into AtenaWin Application Restore FE Model from or ATENA Studio Create new project from result files change to use the value from the nearest integration point instead of extrapolation Output General Options Recovery strategy Nearest MP click Apply and then Cancel store the results again Application Store FE Model to in AtenaWin or through the Steps Manager dialog in ATENA Studio Then you can read it back into ATENA 3D Files Open other Results by step In GiD it is also possible to switch to the nearest point inter extrapolation before starting the analysis using he checkbox Extrapolation Nearest IP at the Global Options tab of the Data Problem Data Problem Data dialog Quadratic left right surface surface Fig 2 1 Example comparison of several ways of interpolation 2 1 10 2 Confinement In case of compressive stresses higher than the compressive strength or when there are no plastic strains while the yield stress is exceeded this is usually a consequence of 11 Troubleshooting confinement The effect is similar for concrete under compression and steel both compression and tension If there is compression or
51. er s Manual 14 The layered shells and threaded beams in ATENA are modelled with quadratic brick hexahedra elements not 2 dimensional quadrilateral elements or 1 dimensional bar elements 4 2 7 Ihave an error when try to edit the material properties in GID Error can t set ttkcb_int__gid_material3_level_combo can t read GidData MAT numprop no such element in array If you get errors while opening the Material dialog or selecting a material in it e g can t read GidData MAT numprop no such element in array while executing setNumProp GidData StructName numprop procedure BuildStringValues line 15 invoked from within the reason are usually special characters in a material name or material names starting with a number We recommend using names starting with some letter and use only letters numbers and _ underscore although some more characters may also work fine To prevent such problems do not use parenthesis UO spaces quotation marks comma semicolon national or other special characters in material or other names in GiD Sometimes it is possible to save the model Make a backup copy of your model e g a ZIP archive then open the mat file in a text editor NotePad PSPad or similar not Word and look for the reinforcement material definitions Replace the broken names with some 100 unproblematic letters numbers underscores Check if you can open the model and
52. er with the network key attached these ports need to be open for both incoming and outgoing communication for the hasplms exe executable file typically installed in C WINDOWS system32 haspIms exe for older HASP drivers the driver executable is nhsrv exe On the workstation running ATENA the ports need to be open for all ATENA executables for outgoing communication Moreover please check if the computer where the network key is connected and the License Manager running NetHASP server is not overloaded with some analysis or other CPU load or with a lot of network traffic high load can lead to slow late responses and as a consequence some timeout limits You can also try to adjust ATENA 42 extend the Timeouts in nethasp ini ATENA 4 3 1 and older or the corresponding settings in haspIm ini hasp_50699 ini ATENA 5 0 2 and later see Reason 1 above Set ND SESSION lt seconds gt in the NH_common section where lt seconds gt is the desired initial search period default 2 sec and NH_SEND RCV lt seconds gt default 1 sec 2 4 14 Problems upgrading a HASP Key 2 4 14 1 HASPPROG ATENA v4 license extensions If you are experiencing problems with the utility for upgrading an ATENA hardlock after a license extension download and install the older HASP driver from http www cervenka cz downloads older hasp driver command line installation v 4 995 22 Typical messages reported by the HASPPROG utility
53. es written from ATENA 3D or created by other means do not contain the pre defined labels and commands for restoring the analysis and therefore more editing work is needed Basically you make a copy of the mp file delete everything before the STORE TO command corresponding to the stored step and change it to RESTORE FROM and then run the analysis for the modified inp file 2 2 24 ATENA only offers translational supports How to specify conditions for hinge support rotations or block all rotations at the end of acolumn You can choose surface line and point supports to block the translational displacements and rotations as needed A single point support does not block any rotation a surface support only in one direction perpendicular to the surface allows a rotation around the surface normal etc in ATENA Science GiD Preprocessor you can also define special Master Slave connections to only bind 1 or 2 DoFs of 2 points or lines or surfaces For example to a horizontal surface you can apply a surface support in Z and only block the displacements in X and Y in a single point center only the rotation around the vertical axis remains unblocked Another frequent example in case of column buckling with both ends fully fixed if you know the weakest buckling plane in advance you can usually take advantage of symmetry according to that plane which excludes 2 rotations To exclude the remaining one you can for example apply th
54. et the message The execution is killed due to violation of stop iteration criteria what does it mean If you get the message The execution is killed due to violation of stop iteration criteria or The execution is killed due to violation of stop step criteria and you do not understand what it means please read about the Conditional Break Criteria in section 3 7 5 1 Solution parameters of the ATENA 3D User s Manual 3 See section 2 1 19 for more information about the convergence criteria Basically these options are designed to stop the analysis when the convergence errors see 2 1 19 at the end of a load step or iteration are so large that continuing the analysis does not make sense with respect to results quality However please understand the default settings are not necessarily the best for all problems The values can be modified by the user See also 2 2 22 for more information on detecting structural collapse However please note that if the analysis breaks earlier than expected in most cases there is some other problem than the stop criteria setting see 2 4 6 for recommendations how to improve convergence and find sources of numerical problems 2 4 2 1 Recommended settings With the default convergence error tolerances of 1 for the first three criteria Oe all except for the energy setting the corresponding Step Stop Multipliers to 10 or 1000 for the energy can be recommended in many cases it means the analysis breaks
55. g modelname err or 3 b AtenaWin O catch fp instructs execute modelname inp modelname out modelname msg modelname err To start the 64 bit version use AtenaConsole64 respectively AtenaWin64 instead For dynamic analysis add M CCStructuresDynamic or M CCStructuresCreep for creep shrinkage or JM CCStructuresTransport for thermal moisture analysis just before the O which says to overwrite the out msg and err files If you start AtenaWin without the execute switch you need to start the analysis manually by pressing Ctrl Shift E or clicking the calculator icon See also Chapter 2 PROGRAM EXECUTION of the ATENA Input File Format Manual 11 To run an inp in ATENA Studio start the program from the system menu or through AtenaStudio AtenaStudi064 then click Create new project from input file open the inp and select the corresponding analysis type Statics Dynamics Transport or Creep Then you can run the analysis as in any other ATENA Studio project 4 3 1 1 Models from ATENA 3D analyzed in AtenaConsole If you like to run a model created in ATENA Engineering 3D in AtenaConsole first store the inp file through Data Save INP files Together Saving results Uncomment the STORE TO commands i e remove the comment markers around the commands corresponding to the steps for which the results should be saved and run AtenaConsole with the modified inp file Monitoring point definitions
56. ience GiD Preprocessor you can define linear temperature gradients or even run a Transport and or Creep Shrinkage analysis See also section 4 1 1 if you are interested in temperature dependent material properties In ATENA Engineering temperature volume change can only be applied constant over each Macroelement 2 2 10 How can I take the bending and or shear contribution of reinforcement bars into account The 1 dimensional discrete reinforcement bar cable elements Fig 2 7 b in ATENA only have axial stiffness i e no bending nor shear stiffness The most exact way is using volume elements for the reinforcement however considering the minimum of 4 6 elements per bar diameter for reasonable bending response this very quickly leads to too many finite elements which makes the analysis unfeasible due to extreme memory and CPU time requirements A possible exception are very small regions with a short segment of or 2 bars modelled as a hexagonal or even only square cross section 2 2 10 1 Bending Bending resistance could be captured at least roughly by modelling each bar by 2 4 bars of 1 2 resp 1 4 the cross section area each each positioned in the gravity centers of the corresponding 1 2 resp 1 4 of the whole bar Fig 2 7 c d Another option is to model the bar with a single shell element square of the corresponding cross section area Fig 2 7 e or 2 shell elements forming together a hexagonal cross section Fig 2 7 f
57. if both the geometry an boundary conditions are symmetrical 2 avoiding unnecessary edges e g modelling small round members or openings as rectangular or max 6 or 8 sided with the same cross section other small complicated profiles can also be replaced in a similar way or replacing unimportant bars with smeared reinforcement 3 more effective meshing like only refining where needed and separately for each direction For example in bending regions multiple volume elements per thickness are needed but the elements can be larger in the other directions as long as the edge aspect ratio does not exceed 3 4 1 4 Other things which also slow down the analysis significantly are material laws with wrong parameters like zero tensile strength of concrete or just more complicated than necessary A typical example is interface GAP which can be frequently replaced by Perfect connection or No connection in areas known as compressive tensile in advance see also 2 2 14 ATENA 30 5 We generally recommend to store the results for every Sth or 10th all analysis step maybe some important steps corresponding to an exact load level which is to be post processed which can save a lot of disk space and also time spent writing the file s during the analysis compared to saving the results from all load steps See also the tips in sections 2 4 1 Out of memory error during ATENA analysis and 2 1 6 I plan to buy a new PC to run ATENA on it wha
58. if the material definitions are OK check all materials used as broken quotation or parenthesis or similar may result in damaging the material s below the broken material definition If that does not work unzip the backup and simply replace the mat file with the file from another GiD model or from the template in the GiD Problemtypes directory and define and assign your materials again 53 Troubleshooting 4 2 8 I can t display the results on Contacts in AtenaWin or ATENA Studio If you can not see the results on contacts please try one of the following workarounds A Switch the display to Wireframe model B Define an Activity with only the Interface elements switch the display to Solid or Wireframe Then you can enable the Full model Outline to see the position of the contacts in your whole structure Please note the contacts in compression overlapping are not displayed if you display the deformed structure C Import the results into ATENA 3D see also 4 3 1 1 for more information about reading calculated results into the ATENA Engineering 3D Postprocessor and display the results there 4 2 9 During analysis start inp file creation get errors like 8m Expected identifier at position 1 rr 99 rr 99 You have used a decimal comma instead of decimal point somewhere Please remember you have to always use decimal point everywhere in GiD regardless of your OS locale settings See 4 2 7 for instruct
59. in stress curve from the first cracking strain No total strain elastic strain fracture strain which means the current elastic strain has to be subtracted 10 Is the plastic compressive strain Gi calculated by subtracting the elastic strain from the total strain Yes the current elastic strain is subtracted from the total strain to get the plastic strain note that the current elastic strain corresponds to the current stress Le it is NOT equal to the elastic strain at compressive strength 11 What does strain at localization Tension Localization Onset mean The strain where the program switches from the strain based formula to the localized formula crack width based using crack band and characteristic length see the figure in the Material dialog For plain concrete this is typically zero for fibre reinforced one typically sets it gt 0 to be able to represent hardening after the first crack initiates etc 21 Troubleshooting 2 2 4 1 User Material DLL If defining the functions in the NLCem2User material are not enough you can prepare your own library providing the material response 16 2 2 5 Howto model bonded post tensioning cables in ATENA For unbonded pre stressing cables the best way of modeling is typically External Cable For bonded ones Reinforcement Bar with bond Usually the error introduced by modelling the bond from the beginning i e before applying the pre stressing is not
60. ing Alternatively you may divide the total area of all bars 2 A Ns by the whole column side area 0 2 times column length and get the same ratio 2 2 6 1 Reinforcement layers in Shells For shell elements the cross section area of a smeared reinforcement layer is defined per 1m width i e the unit is m m The width is meant perpendicular to the reinforcement direction Example You have a plate extending 3m in X direction length 2m in Y width 0 3m in Z thickness and wish to define the bottom reinforcement in X direction as a smeared ATENA 22 reinforcement layer Fig 2 6 The bars have a cross section area A each and are spaced 0 2m That means per 1m of width there are 1 0 2 Sbars and the cross section per 1m of shell width is 5A Alternatively you can divide the total number of bars 10 by the shell width 2m and of course you get the same Sbars m or 54 m cross section area If the cover is 4cm and the bar diameter 32mm the layer distance from the bottom surface should be 0 04 0 032 2 0 056m Fig 2 6 Plate with bottom reinforcement 2 2 7 How to include confinement in the analysis The confinement effect increase of the compressive failure stress due to compressive stresses in other directions is being automatically considered in the material models SBETA NonLinearCementitious2 A more detailed confinement sensitivity is implemented in the NonLinearCementitious3 material See the
61. into a spreadsheet In ATENA Engineering 3D you can display the values using the File Print text command and copy paste into a txt file or spreadsheet In ATENA Engineering 2D the command is File Text printout In ATENA Science use AtenaWin 12 or ATENA Studio 13 for text output we do not know about a way to export text results from GiD Post Open the Output Data Request dialog select OUTPUT_DATA for at location then look for MONITOR_SET_ in the list you can also use the Filter option to make the search easier and select the monitor you need By pressing Apply the values are written to the Out window you can either Copy Paste from there or store the buffer to disk the command from the Output Command tab can be used in an input file see also 11 to output the values during an analysis or for batch processing results with AtenaWin or AtenaConsole We recommend making sure the out window is not hidden before opening the Data Request dialog to be able to immediately see the output A few notes to importing the text results from ATENA into a spreadsheet 1 ATENA always uses the decimal point regardless of the OS locale settings If your OS is set to decimal comma you may need to set dot in the import settings in the software you are importing into or just do Find amp Replace dot for comma before importing the file 2 Please choose fixed length instead of tab space comma semicolon separated if the co
62. ions how to possibly recover your model by manually correcting the mat or prb file 4 3 AtenaWin and AtenaConsole This section addresses problems specific to the text window runtime program AtenaConsole and the program AtenaWin 12 for runtime and post processing 4 3 1 Ihave an ATENA Input File inp how can I start the analysis in AtenaWin or AtenaConsole or ATENA Studio Although not as comfortable as starting the analysis from GiD in some situations it can make sense to start the analysis manually in AtenaConsole or AtenaWin e g if you have modified the inp file prepared it on one computer and wish to start it on another one without GiD or simply wish to save time compared to running in ATENA Engineering 3D One way is to start AtenaWin for the corresponding analysis type from the Start menu open the inp file and press Execute command in the menu or Shift Ctrl E This is one of the ways Another one which is typically more effective and also suitable for AtenaConsole is to start AtenaWin or AtenaConsole directly from the command line from the directory with the inp file i e 1 open a command line window e g Start Run then type cmd 2 go to the directory with your input file eg C lt enter gt cd scratch A TENA task modelname AtenaCalculation lt Enter gt 3 start AtenaConsole or AtenaWin e g 3 a ATENA 54 AtenaConsole O catch fp instructs modelname mp modelname out modelname ms
63. is modelling would not be feasible with today s computers A better option is to model the CFs as discrete bars at near the concrete surface see Fig 2 3 a About 2 bars per element with the area corresponding to the total CF cross section area per the concrete element width should be enough However it is not possible to capture debonding delamination with this modelling slip along fibre direction can be considered with Bond for Reinforcement Sometimes especially in case of 2 dimensional modelling the wrap can also be modelled as a smeared reinforcement layer see Fig 2 3 b and also 2 2 6 The limitations are similar to modelling with discrete bars i e debonding delamination can not be considered 17 Troubleshooting E Bax Em a bd b Fig 2 3 Example of FRP strengthening represented as discrete a and smeared b reinforcement Another recommended option is to use shell elements to model the wraps Then you can model the interface between the concrete and the wrap using contact GAP elements You assign the properties of the matrix material epoxy glue elastic modelling is often enough to the shell volume and add the fibres usually a tri linear working diagram is enough to capture the behaviour of the fibres as reinforcement layers a layer for each fibre direction see also 2 2 6 1 Please see the Shell element
64. large we definitely recommend to proceed that way first Of course if there are problems typically unrealistic bond damage due to pre stressing more complicated modelling options need to be considered In that case please send us your model along with some description and sketches such that we can help you choosing an appropriate way of modelling as instructed in 2 1 1 See also 2 2 11 for general information related to defining reinforcement bond If you observe unrealistic damage during the application of pre stressing see also 2 1 11 2 2 6 Howdo calculate the reinforcement ratio when defining smeared reinforcement The reinforcement ratio is simply the reinforcement cross section area divided by Ke the total area of the section A A Of course lt lt this is calculated independently for each keck h smeared reinforcement direction always an pt considering the corresponding section ee ee sell perpendicular to that direction i pe Sa Jf For example if you have a 20x20 cm square l cele column with stirrups placed every 10cm as in e pay Fig 2 3 with cross section As each the reinforcement ratio for both horizontal Fig 2 5 Column with stirrups directions assuming closed square stirrups 2 legs in each direction is calculated as 2 A 0 2 x 0 1 i e area of the 2 bars divided by the corresponding concrete cross section area column width times stirrup spac
65. le modelling the thin geometry please see also 3 3 8 Strengthening after loading If the strengthening is being added under loading or after unloading but to a structure which is already damaged see also 2 2 1 2 2 3 How can I model Fibre Reinforced Concrete FRC VHPC SHCC in ATENA Adding fibres from various materials like steel SFRC carbon CFRC glass GFRC plastic or other into concrete mixtures to improve the material properties is becoming more and more common There are 3 basic ways for modelling Fibre Reinforced Concrete FRC in ATENA sorted from simplest to most detailed l a The normal NLCem2 material model with increased fracture energy Gf typically 10x 1000x possibly a few other changes in the material parameter values 1 b If you can work in 2D SBETA offers the most straight forward way The choice of tension softening laws is quite wide in the SBETA material and SFRC and SFRC local strain have been developed specifically for FRC 2 Representing the fibres with smeared reinforcement In 3D you should define it in 7 directions the 3 axes 4 pointing in the middle of the octants in 2D 3 should be enough one axial direction in a 60 and 120 degrees angle from it This modelling is of course not good in capturing the fibre bond influence but definitely should give you the general response including the strain hardening For each layer of smeared reinforcement you define a reinforcement
66. lumns are not recognized correctly Then you have set the column positions manually 3 If you are writing to the out directly after the analysis is finished and not after reading the last step results by the Restore FE Model from function I would recommend to only copy the lines with the monitors from the end of the out file into another file instead of importing the whole out file 2 2 21 How to get the nodal forces at 100 nodes as output in text file or other In ATENA Engineering 3D use the File Print text command In ATENA Engineering 2D the command is File Text printout Select the step you are interested in then Nodes then the quantity e g Stress Strain Reference Nodal Coordinates original positions of the nodes i e undeformed structure Current Nodal Coordinates positions of the nodes on deformed structure In AtenaWin or ATENA Studio use the Output Data Request dialog Select Nodes for location and then select the attribute name of interest ATENA 32 2 2 22 How to detect a structural collapse or ultimate load capacity In most ATENA analysis the main goal is to determine at which load level the structure will collapse i e what is the ultimate load carrying capacity To obtain this answer the model should follow the two basic rules 1 the load should be gradually increased applied up to failure 2 the model should include at least two monitors one for monitoring the applied loads forces
67. masonry structures following the new Euro Code norm you may also wish to check our software AmQuake 19 2 2 14 Ihave problems when using the Interface GAP material on contacts 2 2 14 1 Check if Interface elements are really necessary In many cases the contact area or at least a large part of it can be simplified as perfect connection or no connection in regions where it is clear in advance if there is compression or tension see also 2 2 12 If this possible the work needed to define the Interface material parameters and the risk of related problems can be avoided completely 2 2 14 2 Make sure the contact geometry is correct GiD If you are using GiD to create your geometry please see also the ATENA GiD User s Manual 14 section Interface Material for instructions on defining the contact volumes surfaces It is very important that the two surfaces or lines in 2D to be connected are completely independent i e that neither lines nor nodes are shared between them and that their normals point in the required directions 2 2 14 3 Define the Interface material parameters The interface material settings with tensile strength cohesion and friction coefficient all zero are very likely to cause numerical problems The friction coefficient is hardly ever lower than 0 1 maybe except an oiled surface if you have no better measurement estimate 0 3 0 5 are usually not far from reality Cohesion always has to be greater than or
68. mesh generation contacts and analysis in general 3 4 Older ATENA Engineering issues This section could be called an archive of general problems believed to be solved in the current ATENA Engineering version 3 4 1 When Istart ATENA 2D or 3D in Windows 8 1 get error messages complaining about COUNTRYSIGNTOINT invalid COUNDTRYSIGN value The Locale handling has changed between Windows 8 and 8 1 Please update to ATENA 5 0 3 or later 3 4 2 Problem Fix for ATENA v3 3 0 installation Symptoms after ATENA 3 3 0 is installed ATENA 2D crashes at startup with an initialisation error in FAVystup dll or catastrophic failure Reason some DLLs were not properly registered Solution make sure you have administrator rights Unpack rega2d zip e g into c temp and run rega2d bat Try to run ATENA 2D it should start normally now 3 4 3 Mesh generation errors for some macroelements In ATENA 3D 4 3 0 a problem causing mesh generation errors with some models has been fixed To fix older models open the problematic macroelement for editing move a joint save the modified macroelement open it again and move the joint back Then the mesh should generate normally see also 3 3 3 3 4 4 Problems with models involving springs In ATENA 3D 4 3 0 a bug when copying springs has been fixed We are sorry it is sometimes not possible to repair damaged models from older versions For recommendations on defining nonlinear springs pleas
69. more like zero 2 2 12 4 Volume elements Modelling the anchor with volume elements is potentially more precise than with a 1 D bar but it typically leads to a model with much higher resource needs CPU memory as a relatively fine mesh is required This is not only due to the need of several elements per the bar thickness to be able to capture its bending response but also because an opening has to be created in the concrete such that the steel or another material of the anchor does not overlap with the surrounding concrete unlike the 1 dimensional bar modelling where no opening is needed Moreover it is not always straightforward to determine the properties of the Interface material to be applied at the steel concrete contact see also section 2 2 14 Significant parts of the contact area can usually be simplified as perfect connection or no connection in regions where it is clear in advance if there is compression or tension e g no connection at the head bottom perfect connection at the head top 2 2 12 5 Combined approach The two ways of modelling can sometimes be combined A typical example is a headed stud where it is often efficient to represent the head with volume or shell elements and use a 1 D bar for the shaft Sometimes it makes sense to use volume elements also for a part of the shaft near the head where confinement develops 2 2 13 How can I model masonry The traditional way of modelling walls shear walls
70. multidimensional failure surfaces in the material models chapter of the ATENA Theory Manual 1 for details In short there is no need to change the material parameters in the regions where confinement is expected e g inside a reinforcement cage or similar However please do not forget a 2D plane stress model implies zero stress in the third direction and therefore can not capture compressive stress building up in the 3rd direction and the induced confinement 2 2 8 Howcan include the influence of shrinkage To consider shrinkage in ATENA there are 3 possible approaches sorted from simplest to most complex 1 reduce the concrete tensile strength and or fracture energy In typical cases the tensile strength should be reduced to 1 2 1 10 of the original ft 23 Troubleshooting 2 apply the shrinkage as initial strain constant volume reduction throughout the whole structure volume Typical values are between 150 450 microstrain Ge 1 5e 4 to 4 5e 4 relative deformation 3 run a detailed analysis using the Creep analysis module It is recommended to look at the Creep example from the ATENA Science Example Manual before starting this modelling approach If you observe unrealistic damage during shrinkage application see 2 1 11 2 2 9 Howcan apply thermal loading Similarly to modeling shrinkage it depends on the detail required for considering the temperature loading which ATENA program to choose In ATENA Sc
71. n Process When the newly added elements are attached to the already existing parts the nodes in contact with old elements are moved to the deformed position This works almost like pouring the fresh concrete mixture into the structure however the internal nodes are placed at the undeformed initial coordinates which makes the surface elements somewhat distorted If you magnify the displacements later during post processing the elements may easily look very deformed even like turned inside out If this is a problem there is another option of modelling the construction process using variable material NonLinearCementitious2 Variable Define a low elastic modulus e g 1 100 of the value of normal concrete for the steps before the element is added and normal E after However this approach also has a few catches 1 The strains may be wrong which can be partially fixed by adjusting the compressive or tensile properties 2 If you add or delete some load steps you may need to adjust the material to let it act at the correct time 2 2 2 How to model carbon or glass fibre wrap CFRP GFRP strengthening in ATENA Adding a thin layer of epoxy or glue or similar containing directional carbon or glass or other fibres into a model requires special attention With tetrahedral or any other volume elements the thin layers would need a lot of elements imagine just 4 elements per the FRP layer thickness and 4 1 aspect ratio We think th
72. nalysis runs too long for tips 2 1 7 Can Irun ATENA on Linux Can l install it on my Mac with OS X As of version 5 0 3 ATENA can only run on Windows OS recommended 64 bit W7 and versions for other operating systems are currently not in development That means the only way to run ATENA on Linux or OS X or other OS is an emulator like Wine or some virtual machine with Windows e g W7 installed in VMware or VirtualBox or similar Attention has to be paid to the HASP HW keys the corresponding drivers have to be installed both for the host OS HASP drivers for Linux can be downloaded from the Safe Net web and in the virtual machine the ones from the ATENA CD or the latest from the web If you work in Apple OS X using dual boot into Windows is the most efficient way of installing ATENA on your Mac from the point considering the RAM and CPU power available for running analysis 2 1 8 lunderstand the fixed crack model coefficient switches between fixed and rotated cracks Standard the value is 1 but what does that mean In the NLCem2 material family the fixed crack value determines at which max residual tensile stress level the crack direction gets fixed In other words 0 0 means fully rotated crack model 1 0 fixed since cracking start see section 2 1 6 Two Models of Smeared Cracks in the SBETA material description in the ATENA Theory Manual 9 Troubleshooting 1 values between 0 0 and 1 0 determine the level e g 0 7 fi
73. nce of having no external loading please check if your boundary conditions applied as intended ATENA 44 3 ATENA ENGINEERING This section contains problems and solutions specific to the ATENA Engineering graphical user interfaces Currently there are two user interfaces available for ATENA Engineering ATENA Egr 2D 2 and ATENA Egr 3D 3 These programs can be used for static analysis of 2D and 2D problems respectively 3 1 ATENA Engineering general This section contains problems and solutions that are common to the both 2D and 3D GUEs 3 1 1 Howto apply cyclic load Please always remember loads are incremental in ATENA see also 2 2 15 Let s assume the supports are defined in Load case 1 and the two directions of the load are defined in LC s 2 and 3 to always apply compression the loads are defined separately for the two direction e g negative Z displacement to the top plate in LC 2 and positive Z displ to the bottom plate in LC 3 Then the load steps for 1 cycle can look like this 1 loading n steps with LC s and 2 positive multiplier 2 unloading n steps with LC s and 2 negative multiplier 3 loading to the other side m steps with LC s 1 and 3 positive multiplier 4 unloading m steps with LC s 1 and 3 negative multiplier Anyway do not forget to define monitoring points for all quantities of interest at least the displacements and reactions both loading points see also 2 1 13 3 1 2 Display problems
74. nd law i e multiply the max stress value for each given slip however you need to edit the inp file manually see also 4 3 1 to do this If you have 2 bars with a common node the displacements at that point will be continuous however the bond slips are independent unless both have the no slip at start end condition activated for that node which forces both slips to zero ATENA 26 2 2 12 3 2 Unrealistic bond stresses along unbonded segments If you see unrealistic bond stresses too high too far from numerical zero in bar segments in the air between the concrete surface and the wrap at the end being pulled or in segments separated from the concrete to prevent bonding this is typically a consequence of the values being averaged from its endpoints fixed to the concrete and steel If the free unbonded segment is long the stress linearly decreasing from the end of bonding to 0 at the other end this can give a contribution comparable to the bonded segment To avoid or at least reduce this effect 1 move the no slip endpoint to the surface of the elastic pyramid cube This gives 0 bond stress at the end of the free segment 2 add a joint just next to the end of the bonded segment eg 0 1mm away This makes the solver iterate more because that point is hanging in the air and if too far from the fixed e g 1mm the analysis does not converge but it makes the bond stress along the major part of the free segment look
75. ngs only for one user ul but it is also possible to set the network key search for all users by placing the file in ProgramData SafeNet Sentinel Sentinel LDK hasp_50699 ini Solution 1 ATENA 4 3 1 and older download the sample NetHASP configuration file nethasp ini see Download section on http www cervenka cz or create a new file by pasting the contents below copy it to the ATENA installation directory and edit it to set the NH SERVER ADDR to the IP address of your Licence Manager server ATENA should now always find the correct network key first and start normally Sample NetHASP configuration file nethasp ini NH_TCPIP NH_SERVER_ADDR 192 168 x x NH_SERVER_ADDR lt Addr1 gt lt Addr2 gt IP addresses of all the NetHASP License Managers you want to search Unlimited addresses and multiple lines are possible Possible address format examples IP address 192 114 176 65 Local Hostname ftp aladdin co il Ne Ne Ne Ne Ne Ne NH USE BROADCAST Disabled NH_USE BROADCAST Enabled or Disabled Use TCPI IP Broadcast mechanism Reason 2 blocked or slow network communication with the License Manager Solution 2 please try if temporarily disabling the firewall solves the problem or not If so configure the firewall on both the workstation and the server to allow the communication between ATENA and the License Manager on ports 475 and 1947 both TCP and UDP On the comput
76. not all windows ORARIA ONK a BRR a era Tt er ee et 56 4 4 2 Can not read results for postprocessing CCException An error during serialisation of the model CC Structures een 56 REFERENCES ENEE v Troubleshooting 1 INTRODUCTION This document is intended as a reference for frequent error and warning messages and solving general common problems occurring while using the software First general messages and problems are handled followed by program specific issues structured according to the parts of the software package user interfaces ATENA 6 2 GENERAL QUESTIONS MESSAGES PROBLEMS AND INSTRUCTIONS In this chapter questions problems 2 1 2 3 and how to solutions 0 which are common to all ATENA programs are presented 2 1 General problems 2 1 1 Ihave a problem not listed here If you experience a problem that is not described here nor in the Readme nor in the Frequently Asked Questions Known Issues on our web 17 please download the latest version of this document from our web http www cervenka cz assets files atena pdf ATENA Troubleshooting pdf If you have also failed to find an answer or a solution in the manuals you should try to search our forum at http www cervenka cz forum If you still cannot find a solution of your problem please send us your model cc3 cc2 or gid without results compressed with ZIP Rar or another packer by email to cervenka at cervenka cz For ATENA Engineering 3
77. oelement In this way each macroelement has its unique entities which makes the 37 Troubleshooting operations with data of macroelements easy such as adding deleting etc In the solution core nodes with identical locations which are kinematically connected are processed by Dirichlet BC procedure which puts all prescribed constraints in each degree of freedom DoF together and issues the warning if there is more than one Do not worry about this message although it always makes sense to check the locations of the reported nodes if there is any problem with the model 2 4 5 During calculation I get the warning Redundant needless LHS BCs detected for the following u node_id do_id they will be ignored or Warning Attempt to constrain slave use master non active or zero dof constraint ignored The message often repeated for multiple degrees of freedom Redundant needless LHS BCs detected for the following u node_id do_id they will be ignored Source line 1015 file or Warning Attempt to constrain slave use master non active or zero dof DoF wd of node node_id load case lc_id dof BC cond_id LHS BC id Is be d constraint ignored is a result of applying supports in a direction to nodes that are already held in that direction by other means Typically this occurs at supports applied to macroelements connected through master slave connections e g 2 blocks next to each other supported from bo
78. or Warning Attempt to constrain slave use master non active or zero dof constraint ignored 38 2 4 6 Floating point problems Division by zero Loss of gt 7 digits on the matrix diagonal CCFEModelExc CCPardiso solver error zero pivot Warning Sign of diagonal changed when reducing equation Floating point exception Multiple floating points traps Zero or negative jacobian InvertA zero determinant CCMaterials Extended AExc CC5ParamYield F project_stress_on_f_division by zero ANd similor 38 2 4 7 get the warning Convergence criteria within line search not satisfied due to eta limit continuing super ordinate iteration during analysis what does it mean 39 2 4 8 I have this error CCINPExc Illegal real number 0 line N file data being Ha ge ol ci EE 39 2 4 9 CCInpFExc Syntax error reading ATENA input line N file EE 39 2 4 10 CCMaterialExtendedAExc FCO greater then FC in material material X 40 2 4 11 get a message that I can t understand Shell plate macroelement X contains more then a single layer of elements in the direction of the local Z AXIS EE 40 2 4 12 Hardware key not recognized HASP required key not found invalid user id check ATENA only running in Demo mode OF similorl eet 40 2AAS Problem with eren Ee 4 2 4 14 Problems Upgrading a HASP Key ee 43 2 4 15 get the warning Zero RHS vector what IS wrong EEN 44 ATENA TE 3 1 ATENA Engineering
79. output 2 2 1 Is there an example how to change the structure during analysis to consider the construction process In ATENA Engineering 3D modelling construction process is pretty straight forward and explained in section 3 8 2 1 Construction cases of the ATENA 3D User s Manual 3 For ATENA Science and Engineering 2D there are tutorials included in the installation section 2 2 Tutorial for Construction Process in AtenaV4 Documentation ATENA Science ATENA Science_ Example Manual pdf or AtenaV5 Documentation ATENA Science ATENA Science_ Example Manual pdf and AtenaV4 Documentation A TENA Engineering ATENA Engineering 2D_Tutorial_Construction_Process pdf or AtenaV5 Documentation ATENA Engineering ATENA Engineering 2D_Tutorial_Construction_Process pdf ATENA 16 2 2 1 1 Notes and restrictions In general it is important to pay attention to a few restrictions while modelling construction process in ATENA 1 The newly added structural member Macroelement in ATENA Engineering 3D volume or surface in ATENA GiD has to be connected as Slave in all contacts connecting it to the already existing parts Master 2 At the same time the general rule that the side with the larger finite elements has to be the Master remains valid Together this implies the newly added parts have to be meshed with the same element size as the old ones or finer 2 2 1 2 Variable material as an alternative to Constructio
80. put in the node that belongs to the reinforcement and is close to the support condition e reaction at a joint which connects too regions will contain the reaction force only from one region and not the other This may be especially a problem in case of load displacement diagram monitoring It is recommended not to monitor reaction or forces at geometrical joints that belong to more than one region If it is necessary then the reaction force should be monitored at all nodes with identical coordinates The total reaction can be then obtained by their summation Correct reaction forces can be verified from the text output of the REACTIONS This problem was partially fixed in version 1 1 3 but full fix exists in version 1 2 2 In this version there are two types of reactions e PARTIAL_REACTIONS some forces appear to be missing but they can be found in other nodes that are constrained with the node where the support is applied e COMPACT_REACTIONS these are the reactions that you will be using most of the time They are not modified by the various constraints due to for instance reinforcement or others ATENA 14 2 1 19 Problems reaching convergence and understanding ATENA convergence parameters It is important to check the convergence process in ATENA during the nonlinear analysis The characteristics about the convergence process are best seen in the message log file In typical situation this is the file with the extension msg Al
81. rd while working in ATENA 13 Troubleshooting 2 1 15 Sometimes after lot of editing an error message appears In this case it is recommended to save your data and start the program again In most cases this error does not result in any loss of data 2 1 16 Some materials do not support Tangent predictor Some materials do not support Tangent predictor Elastic stiffness is used instead This concerns the following material types CC3DCementitious CC3DNonLinCementitious where the tangent stiffness is supported only for cracking CC3DBiLinearSteelVonMises CC3DDruckerPragerPlasticity where the tangent stiffness is not supported at all 2 1 17 Itis not possible to read results created with version 4 x x or 1 2 3 and older of the program It is not possible to read results created with version 1 2 3 and earlier of the program A similar change of the results data format has also occurred between versions 4 and 5 Only input data are backward compatible which means it may be necessary to re generate the mesh and re calculate old data when new version of the program is installed 2 1 18 Wrongly reported reactions Reactions are always correctly calculated but they can be wrongly reported in the post processor in case of e inclined supports only one component of the reaction is shown e for supports close to the reinforcement part of the reaction that goes into the reinforcement rod is not shown but it will appear in the textual out
82. red in the analysis The main restrictions and their workarounds are the following 2 1 20 1 Bilinear material model The volume material for steel in ATENA 3D Bilinear von Mises only supports bilinear laws ideal plastic or with hardening There is no limit strain which means exceeding it has to be verified in post processing Due to confinement effects see also 2 1 10 2 and 2 2 7 checking the stress to determine failure is not a good idea Comparing the max min principal plastic strain in the steel to an ultimate strain value is probably the simplest way to determine failure identify the last load step before exceeding the ultimate We recommend defining Min Max monitors to be able to follow it already during the analysis 2 1 20 2 Too many mesh elements If you need to model a larger steel structure volume elements can easily require extreme amounts of memory and time keep in mind 4 elements per thickness are about the minimum for bending regions Therefore you probably need to model most of your structure with the threaded beam elements only available through the ATENA GiD GUE of ATENA Science see ATENA GiD User s Manual 14 5 3 3 Beam Material or shell elements see ATENA GiD User s 5 3 2 Shell Material or ATENA Engineering 3D User s 3 3 7 2 2 7 Shell Macroelements 2 2 Howto This section contains instructions how to model specific structures experiments materials loadings etc or how to get specific
83. ressive strength or yield stress what is E 11 2 1 11 Unrealistic damage near loading support plates during shrinkage or pre or DOSE tensioning EE 12 2 1 12 Strange deformations in a corner OF ON AN ege EEN 12 2 1 13 A monitoring point shows no value the program gives me an error on reading a elef EE 13 2 1 14 Problem with SOME Graphics drivers ENEE 13 2 1 15 Sometimes after lot of editing an error MESSAGE appears ressesssssesseesesseeressseseseenes 14 2 1 16 Some materials do not support Tangent PLeiCtOL essesecsessssressseresseerssessscseseseeeeses 14 2 1 17 It is not possible to read results created with version 4 x x or 1 2 3 and older of el EES 14 2 1 18 Wrongly reported Bee E 14 2 1 19 Problems reaching convergence and understanding ATENA convergence OG INCL OLS EEE PE AE A AE N E E A E A 15 2 1 20 Can I modela steel structure EE 15 2 2 FO WUE EE 16 2 2 1 Is there an example how to change the structure during analysis to consider the CONSEMOCHON DIOCOSS Eer EE 16 2 2 2 How to model carbon or glass fibre wrap CFRP GFRP strengthening in ALL ENA AEE E E EAE E 17 2 2 3 How can I model Fibre Reinforced Concrete FRC UHPC SHCC in ATENA 19 2 2 4 want to use the user defined stress strain law of concrete to replace that used in ATENA program EH 20 2 2 5 Howto model bonded post tensioning cables in ATENA see 22 2 2 6 How do calculate the reinforcement ratio when defining smeared f inforceme Nt crctince ean nac
84. s description in the Manual 3 or 14 Here only the most important settings are summarized 1 For all macroelements that use shell plate elements the following has to be set 1 1 quadratic in FE mesh Generation and 1 2 brick in FE mesh Macroelements 2 For pure tension a 3 4 layered shell is enough for cases where bending of the shell has influence usually 6 10 layered shells are needed to get accurate results 3 Please pay attention to the wrapped edges the best connection at edges is a 45 degrees or a different corresponding angle if the thicknesses are not the same see the figures in the manual It should not matter which surface is top and which bottom the important thing is that the thickness is defined in the right direction the smallest one and as long as the top and bottom surfaces are parallel both give correct result However in corners where 2 FRP elements are connected I would recommend that these have both the same orientation i e both have top to the beam or both bottom to the beam Additionally if one defines reinforcement layers in different depths of the shells it makes sense to have consistent orientation such that the distances from top bottom have the same meaning everywhere ATENA 18 Fig 2 4 Example of FRP represented with shells a beam strengthened at the bottom modelled symmetric half Model precision If you have problems with nonplanar surfaces or similar whi
85. s fine enough comparable to bar diameter and the bars are ribbed For larger element and or smooth bars bond influence can be significant and defining bond properties can make sense The reinforcement bond parameters can be generated according to Bigaj 1999 or following the CEB FIB Model Code 1990 or you can enter a user defined strength slip law To do so in ATENA Engineering 2D 3D define a Bond for Reinforcement material then select it in the reinforcement bar properties In ATENA GiD select BAR WITH BOND for Geom Type on the Element Geometry tab of the 1D Reinforcement material dialog and an additional tab Bar With Bond appears Please do not forget the bond law definition in ATENA is bond slip bond strength not bond slip bond stress In other words no elastic bond slip is being considered explicitly in the ATENA bond model it would kind of mean double considering the elastic deformations of the neighbouring concrete elements in the analysis i e the slip is zero until the bond strength is reached This also means the bond function should NOT start with zero strength for zero slip 0 0 which can make the system ill conditioned although we have had some examples like this in the database If you are not sure replace the 0 with at least about 10 of the maximum bond strength for zero slip 2 2 12 How can I model a pull out experiment There are two basic ways of modelling a bar or anchor being pulled out from concrete
86. s on reducing the size of your model 3 2 ATENA Engineering 2D Problems and messages specific to the Engineering 2D graphical user interface GUE 2 are presented in this section 3 2 1 Error messages during analysis Canvas does not allow drawing Invalid pointer operation or Control PN_Middle has no parent window Sometimes messages like Canvas does not allow drawing Invalid pointer operation or Control PN_ Middle has no parent window appear during the analysis If this happens and the analysis stops please re start the calculation from the latest stored step If you do not zoom pan or change the results display while the analysis is running the probability of problems is significantly lower Not displaying any results also helps to reduce the risk 3 2 2 Only X stresses strains displayed during analysis In 2D runtime the display selection box sometimes lists stresses and strains in X direction only If you encounter this problem change the materials order such that the first one is not a reinforcement material 3 3 ATENA Engineering 3D This section is devoted to issues specific for the Engineering 3D graphical user environment 3 3 3 1 Problem restoring minimized ATENA 3D window ATENA 3D v4 sometimes can not be restored by clicking when minimized into the Windows taskbar If this occurs please open the Task Manager Shift Ctrl Esc and restore the window using the Switch to command in the contex
87. sion 3 3 0 The return algorithm of the plasticity model has changed in version 3 3 0 06 09 14 The BETA parameter of the NonLinCementitious2 model now has a different impact on the final results Specifically if a standard Poisson s ratio of 0 2 is used the BETA parameter of the new solver is equal to half of the BETA parameter of the old solver Hence all old models with nonzero BETA should be updated 35 Troubleshooting 2 3 6 CC3DNonLinCementitous3User material changed in version 3 2 5 The CC3DNonLinCementitous3 User material is slightly modified starting from version 3 2 5 The unloading in tension is elastic up to the onset of localization After the localization onset the unloading is to the point where the localization started 2 3 7 CC3DCementitious material and CC3DNonLinCementitious materials may show stronger behaviour in version 2 0 1 The CC3DCementitious material and CC3DNonLinCementitious materials may show stronger behaviour in version 2 0 1 than in previous versions The failure envelope has been modified to better represent the tri axial compressive behaviour or concrete This difference should be significant only in stress states with high confinement In previous version of ATENA this tri axial strength was highly underestimated 2 3 8 Fatigue analysis gives different result since version 5 1 3 or 5 3 1a In version 5 1 3 5 3 la the fatigue material model has been changed and improved compared to previous versions
88. t do you recommend AtenaConsole has the lowest overhead during the analysis you can consider using it instead of ATENA Engineering 3D or 2D or AtenaWin see section 4 3 1 on instructions how to run AtenaConsole 2 2 18 My analysis results do not match the experiment expectations How can improve my model We recommend to first of all look at the Load Displacement graph the best way is to put the measurement and analysis values into one graph Make sure to match the initial stiffness the initial slope of the L D graph If it does not check the boundary conditions supports loads symmetry planes etc the E modulus and reinforcement area amp modulus to get there if necessary Check the mesh for example if bending regions have enough elements per thickness at least 4 for qualitative only results min 6 10 for quantitative results alternatively use shells After the initial stiffness is OK look when and where cracking and reinforcement yielding and eventually other nonlinearities develop and then check and as needed adjust the corresponding material settings mesh or geometry A relatively common source of differences is neglecting shrinkage see 2 2 8 for advice how to include it 2 2 19 How can I monitor a surface or line load In ATENA GiD you can utilize the Summation option of MaxMonitor e g to monitor the reaction at a surface with prescribed displacement use Data Conditions MaxMonitor for Surfa
89. t menu brought by right clicking ATENA 3D in the applications list Windows 7 and older or expand the ATENA 3D 32 bit item in the Apps list at the Process tab and double click the modelname cc3 ATENA 3D line Windows 8 3 3 2 Problem creating an opening More than two surfaces are connected to the edge n XX When creating an opening in a macroelement in ATENA 3D program the process is the following 1 Create the macroelement without the opening ATENA 46 2 Define the joints for the opening Typically they will lie in one of the surfaces of the original macroelement 3 Connect the opening joints to form lines 4 Define an opening 5 Extrude the opening by a certain length such that it exactly ends on the opposite macroelement surface 6 After the extrusion manually delete the surface that remains at the bottom of the opening The easiest way to do so typically is the following 6 1 remove the surface at the hole bottom created during the extrusion coinciding with the opposite macroelement surface 6 2 create an opening in the macroelement surface using the lines remaining in the plane after the extrusion which previously formed the superfluous surface deleted in step 6 1 7 Now the opening should be ready Model precision If you have problems with nonplanar surfaces or similar while modelling small geometry entities please see also 3 3 8 3 3 3 Problem meshing geometry created in older ATENA versions
90. ternatively this can be verified using the special monitors in ATENA Studio command View Pre defined diagrams in ATENA Engineering the message file content is accessible using the command Data Analysis progress information from the post processing window There are four convergence criteria available Criter 1 Relative error in displacement Criter 2 Relative error in residual forces Criter 3 Absolute error in residual forces Criter 4 Relative error in energy i e basically a product of relative residual error and displacement error The provided error measures are relative This means that for instance a value of 0 03 for the criterion 2 means the error in the force equilibrium of 3 If after the analysis there are many steps where the maximum number of iterations was reached it is important to understand that a significant error can be expected in the obtained results The amount of the error can be estimated based on the highest error in these four criteria at the end of the step However it should be understand that the real error could be larger than the provided estimate In general if there are errors gt 10 in several steps in a row the results are not reliable On the other hand a single step with error about 2 is absolutely no problem in most cases There are several ways how to improve the convergence Our recommendation is to try the following measures one after another as long as the problem persists
91. to be transformed Error in line 2 at C xxx yyy gid yyy uni system ATENA_SI_MN_AND_M is not defined ee 51 ATENA iv 4 2 2 During model transformation the unit system is changed to the default EE ee EE 52 4 2 3 My working screen is black and I can not change it Other display problems in lege ere 52 4 2 4 Problems with GiD license USB or network floating sessesssssessssrsssesesssssesssseeseneens 52 4 2 5 GiDclaims You don t have assigned Material 0 at Element xxxx For first number of unassigned element see dat file E 52 4 2 6 Message in line number 63 error Materials CCShellMaterial and CCBeam3DMaterial are permited only for Element Hexahedron EEN 53 4 2 7 Ihave an error when try to edit the material properties in GID Error can t set ttkcb_int__gid_material3_level_combo can t read GidData MAT numprop no s ch element iN EE eebe Eeer 53 4 2 8 I can t display the results on Contacts in AtenaWin or ATENA Studio 54 4 2 9 During analysis start inp file creation get errors like Gm Expected identifier CE DOS ITIONT EE 54 A3 AtemaWin and AtenaConsolle ccsscsecsssccssccseccssccsscccscscsssssseessecseesssessscesscesscessecesceessees 54 4 3 1 have an ATENA Input File inp how can start the analysis in AtenaWin or AtenaConsol eor ATENA StudiO esse sie sacs aes acs ea coat sacs vesaes es deosens nanii ahinan 54 AA ARENAS EIERE 56 4 4 1 After returning from Turbo mode or restoring a saved layout
92. ttom or when shells are supported in a direction not perpendicular to their thickness then the implicit master slave in depth direction and the support act in the same direction A boundary conditions conflict can also occur on a line point shared by 2 surfaces lines with boundary conditions applied In that situation you may need to apply the combined condition explicitly to the line point if the 2 conditions are not identical see also 2 1 12 Strange deformations in a corner or on an edge 2 4 6 Floating point problems Division by zero Loss of gt 7 digits on the matrix diagonal CCFEModelExc CCPardiso solver error zero pivot Warning Sign of diagonal changed when reducing equation Floating point exception Multiple floating points traps Zero or negative jacobian InvertA zero determinant CCMaterials Extended AExc CC5Param Yield F project_stress_on_f_division by zero and similar First of all look at the model in a step before the message occurs Investigate anything unusual is there a support missing Is the load the intended Ge are you not accidentally applying e g 10MN instead of 10kN or similar Isn t a point load or support applied directly into nonlinear material see also 2 2 19 1 Are there cracks in unexpected regions a strange deformed shape Check the convergence see also 2 4 2 Typical problem sources are badly supported or wrongly connected structure mechanism an element of numeric
93. ven as fraction of the initial value the elastic modulus E is in MPa However the value there is just an extremely high one left there from some what if tests 4 Is ft the same as uniaxial tensile strength ft Yes as in Chapter 2 2 Fracture Plastic Constitutive Model family 5 How to get Gj The easiest way is to generate an EC2 concrete class close to your mixture or select one from the database and copy paste the fracture energy Gf value 6 Should I keep the Tau ft value of shear strength function be default value Well if you do not know anything better you can try the default values as a starting point Or follow formula 2 48 in section 2 2 3 Rankine Fracturing Model for Concrete Cracking of the ATENA Theory Manual 7 What s the concrete compression strength used in the spreadsheet The spreadsheet has no relation to compressive strength at all It only does calculations related to tension and shear Other questions related to the NLCem2User material model 8 Does the compressive strength reduction due to cracking curve denote the softening part after plastic strain localization No This function determines how the compressive strength decreases due to cracking in other direction s in the same material point See also the Biaxial failure law figure on the Basic tab of the NLCem2User dialog 9 Can the fracturing strain ze be calculated by subtracting the total strain of the tested tensile stra
94. xes the crack direction as soon it opens so far that the softening law drops to 0 7 times the initial tensile strength We generally only recommend to use partially rotated cracks for very large finite elements shells subjected to load of changing direction 2 1 9 Does the nonlinear analysis of ATENA consider the geometrical nonlinearity second order effects like buckling or necking A short answer yes A more detailed one in General data Analysis information Solution you can check uncheck a box named Geometrically nonlinear analysis ATENA Engineering 3D In ATENA GiD you can select LINEAR or NONLINEAR for Geometrical Non Linearity at the Element Geometry tab of the Material dialog If enabled the equilibrium on deformed geometry is considered even during each iteration If disabled the geometry from the end of the previous load step is used during the iterations For short load steps the setting does not change much This means second order effects like buckling are of course automatically taken into account In other words if you model the classical Euler beam with compressive load you get the expected response when the force gets close to the critical value the deformation starts to increase rapidly In case of even just locally large deformations sometimes the numerics runs better with linear stable deformations from last step time saved updating in each iteration sometimes the nonlinear works better
95. xxxxxxxx un1 system ATENA is not defined when opening a project click OK and go to Data Problem Type Atena or Data Problem Type ATENA v4 when working with ATENA version 4 and select the corresponding type i e Static or Creep or Transport or Dynamic Then choose Transform to new problemtype Transform NOT Update the latter would destroy boundary conditions material assignments etc After that the project should work normally Background This error occurs if the ATENA related problemtype is not correctly recognized by GiD The most frequent situation is when you open an older model e g created in ATENA GiD 4 3 1 in ATENA GiD version 5 because the names of the ATENA related problemtypes have changed from ATENA v4 Static or Creep Transport Dynamic to ATENA Static Creep Transport Dynamic between versions 4 and 5 51 Troubleshooting If you have both 4 3 1 and 5 0 0 scripts installed in your GiD the old models open in 4 3 1 without the error message however you have to manually transform anyway to continue your work with the model in ATENA version 5 In other words if you only use v5 the only difference is to click one more message the first time you open an old model which is probably not worth re installing or copying the v4 scripts into your GiD see section 4 ATENA GID INSTALLATION of the ATENA GiD User s Manual 14 for instructions how to install the scripts 4 2 2 During model transformation the unit s
96. ystem is changed to the default m ATENA sf MN AND A Sometimes the unit system is changed to the default m ATENA SI MN AND Mi during model transformation especially if the differences between the old and new ATENA GiD versions are larger To correct this please switch to another unit system then to the intended system 4 2 3 My working screen is black and I can not change it Other display problems in GiD If you have problems with your graphics card start GiD in Software OpenGL Safe Mode We always recommend video boards designed for CAD e g nVidia FX series or ATI FireGL FirePro series see also 2 1 6 I plan to buy a new PC to run ATENA on it what do you recommend You should also use the latest GiD version currently 11 0 If you are using an older GiD version 8 x x or 9 x x under Windows Vista or 7 it is also recommended to disable Desktop Composition for GiD see section 3 1 1 4 2 4 Problems with GiD license USB or network floating Please follow Chapter 3 GiD Installation and Registration in ATENA GiD User s Manual 14 to register your GiD license It is important to understand the GiD license number is not identical to the GiD Password The Password to be entered into the GiD registration dialog is obtained though the GiD web based on the license number and the Sysinfo corresponding to the USB flash disk If you are using a network floating license for GiD install PasServer on the computer that will work

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