9th Convention on Advances and Applications of GiD

GiD+OpenSees Interface
An Introductory Course

Vassilis K. Papanikolaou
Assistant Professor, School of Civil Engineering
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Barcelona, June 2018

 
 
Interface Installation and Walkthrough

This section covers the essentials for installing GiD+OpenSees interface and
displays its basic features. The installation steps are the following :

1) Download and install GiD (32 or 64 bit Windows) from the official GiD website

https://www.gidhome.com/download/official-versions

2) Download OpenSees and the associated tcl framework (32 or 64 bit Windows)
from the official OpenSees website. Install the tcl framework (recommended
C:\tcl) and copy OpenSees.exe to any folder (recommended C:\OpenSees)

http://opensees.berkeley.edu/OpenSees/user/download.php

3) Download GiD+OpenSees interface from the official site by selecting the

Download option (redirects to GitHub). Run the installer and select the
previously defined OpenSees path when prompted.

http://gidopensees.rclab.civil.auth.gr

After installing the interface, note that all the relevant files are located in :

<GiD installation folder>\problemtypes\OpenSees.gid\

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The installation is now completed. The GiD+OpenSees Interface can be invoked
by running GiD and select Data → Problem type → OpenSees

After loading the interface, a side toolbar appears containing all the essential
functionality for building and running a finite element model with OpenSees.
Moreover, the ‘OpenSees’ menu contains additional options for executing
analysis and getting Help. The toolbar and menu commands are displayed in the
following tables :

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 Toolbar commands

Standard Uniaxial Materials Zero-Length Elements

Concrete Uniaxial Materials Truss Elements

Steel Uniaxial Materials Beam-Column Elements

Multidimensional Materials Surface Elements

Section Force-Deformation Solid Elements

Combined Materials General Data

Records Output Options

Restraints Interval Data

Constraints Generate Mesh

Masses/Damping Run Analysis

Loads Show/Hide Local Axes

Show/Hide Elements

All toolbar buttons in bold will open

a respective dialog window for Show/Hide Conditions
data definition and associations.

Set Active Interval

Detailed reference for all toolbar commands with examples can be found
in the User Manual located in the GiD+OpenSees menu

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 Menu commands

1
2

3
4
5
6
7

9
10
11

12
13
14

15
16

1. Select an existing OpenSees model file (.tcl) and import its geometry in GiD
2. Run analysis and postprocess (same to toolbar button)
3. Just create the .tcl file
4. Create the .tcl file and view it with default text editor
5. Just run the analysis
6. Just translate the output files for postprocessing
7, Combined options 5+6
8. Delete all generated results from previous analysis
9. Official GiD+OpenSees site
10. Official OpenSees site
11. Official OpenSees wiki
12. GiD+OpenSees user manual
13. DesignSafe-CI user manual
14. DesignSafe-CI site
15. Check online for newer versions
16. About screen

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 How it (actually) works

1. Model is created in GiD and saved in folder <path>\<model name>.gid

e.g. D:\Downloads\Tutorial - Plane Truss.gid

2. After pressing the analysis button :

a) <model name>.tcl is created in <path>\<model name>.gid\OpenSees

b) OpenSees.exe is executed and all analysis output and log files are written in
<path>\<model name>.gid\OpenSees
c) Output files are automatically translated and <model name>.post.res is written
in <path>\<model name>.gid. This only file is used by GiD for postprocessing.
d) Resetting analysis option deletes <path>\<model name>.gid\OpenSees and
<model name>.post.res

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Example A – Elastic Truss Structure

The first example is an elastic truss structure, modeled in the XY plane. The truss
geometry is depicted below :

Material properties Steel S450 : Es = 200 GPa

Section properties IPE200 : A = 28.5 cm2
L70x50x6 : A = 6.89 cm2

A. Preprocessing

1. Define steel material

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2. Define truss elements

→  

   

3. Draw geometry in GiD

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4. Assign truss elements to geometry lines

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5. Assign restraints (pin XY) to truss support nodes

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6. Assign loads

Assign -10 kN point forces to the nine truss nodes depicted below

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7. Set analysis options

For this simple elastic analysis, no changes to the default interval settings are
needed.

8. Set mesh size

Set one truss element per line : Mesh → Structured → Lines → Assign Number of
Cells → 1 to all elements.

Then generate mesh from

B. Analysis

Click and proceed to postprocessing when prompted.

  

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C. Postprocessing

From the GiD postprocessor, various result types can be viewed, i.e. deformed
shape and truss axial forces :

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Example B1 – Inelastic Plane Frame

The second example is a three-story, two-bay inelastic frame structure, modeled

in the XY plane. The frame geometry is depicted below :

Material properties Concrete C20/25, Steel B500C

Section properties Columns 50x50, Beams 30x70

A. Preprocessing

1. Define concrete material as Concrete01

- Unconfined : C20/25 default values
- Confined : C20/25 default values with -5e-3 ultimate crushing strain
Define steel material as Reinforcing steel with B500C default values

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 →

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2. Define fiber sections for beams and columns
- Columns 4Ø20+4Ø18
- Beams 3Ø16 top & bottom

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3. Define force-based beam-column elements for beams and columns

4. Draw geometry in GiD

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5. Assign beam and column force-deformation elements to geometry lines

6. Assign restraints (fix XY) to truss support nodes (Active Interval : 1)

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 →

7. Assign static loads

Assign -15 kN/m line uniform forces to all beams (Active Interval : 1)

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 →

8. Assign masses

Assign 20 tons of mass in x-direction to all nodes in all stories (Active Interval : 1)

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 →

9. Define strong motion record

Record file : Loma_Prieta.dat Time column : 1

Type : Acceleration Value column : 2
Format : Time and value per line Scale factor : 9.81 (convert %g to m/s2)
Lines to skip : 6

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The selected strong motion record can be viewed by pressing ‘Display record’

10. Set analysis options

The first interval contains boundary conditions, masses and gravity loading. It is
defined as follows (Static analysis, Load Control, 5 steps)

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After the end of gravity loading, another interval (2) is added for strong motion
(inelastic dynamic analysis), as follows :

Analysis type is Transient, using the Newmark Integration Scheme (β=0.5, γ=0.25),
the analysis duration is 40 seconds with a time step of 0.01 (exactly as specified in
the record file) and the excitation type is uniform, based on the already defined
record (Loma_Prieta) along the Ux direction (horizontal excitation).

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11. Set mesh size

Set four force-based elements per line : Mesh → Structured → Lines → Assign
Number of Cells → 4 to all elements.

Then generate mesh from

B. Analysis

Click and proceed to postprocessing when prompted.

  
 

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C. Postprocessing

For this dynamic analysis, apart from the usual result types that were discussed in
the previous example, it is interesting to show a displacement animation under
strong motion and the roof horizontal displacement response graph in time.

Set displacements to 15x select Animate and press play

     
Note : No damping was considered in the analysis 
   

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 How to include Rayleigh Damping

1. Deactivate Interval 2 (dynamic analysis)

2. Activate eigenvalue analysis

3. Run analysis, postprocess and get period values

4. Back to preprocessing, activate Interval 2 again.

5. Enter T1 and T2 into Rayleigh Damping window and calculate parameters for
5% damping (common value for buildings)

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 →

6. Run analysis again and display results. Now the response is clearly damped.

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Example B2 – Inelastic Plane Frame on Elastic Soil (SSI)

The objective of the last example is to add an elastic soil medium under the
previous inelastic frame structure and observe the differences in response due to
soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. The updated geometry is depicted below :

A. Preprocessing

1. Define soil material as an Elastic Isotropic nD material with E = 50 MPa and

ν = 0.25 (unsaturated medium to hard clay) and assign this material to a
quadrilateral surface element type under Plane Strain conditions.

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 →

2. Hide the current layer containing the frame model and add a new empty ‘Soil’
layer for adding the additional geometry.

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3. Draw soil geometry in GiD. Draw a 6x3 matrix 4x4 m square surfaces, using the
‘Soil’ layer as depicted. The axes origin (0,0) should coincide with the base of
the middle frame column.

4. Assign the soil quadrilateral element defined earlier to all surfaces.

5. Assign a pin-XY restraint to the bottom boundary of the soil medium.

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6. Assign equal constraint master nodes with ID = 1,2,3,4,5,6 to the following
points :

1 2 3
4

Then assign equal constraint slave nodes with ID = 4,5,6 with X-Translation only to
the following points :

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 4

This condition enforces an approximate shear-type horizontal response for the

soil substrate.

Hide the Soil layer and show the Frame layer. Then assign the remaining equal
constraint slave nodes with ID = 1,2,3 with X & Y translation to the three frame
column bases.

1 2 3

This assignment will kinematically connect the inelastic frame with the elastic soil
substrate. The final loads and boundary conditions are depicted below :

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 →

11. Set mesh size

Set a 4x4 mesh for all surfaces : Mesh → Structured → Lines → Assign Number of
Cells → 4 to all surface boundary lines.

Then generate mesh from

B. Analysis

Click and proceed to postprocessing when prompted.

  

C. Postprocessing

For this SSI analysis, it is interesting to show the horizontal displacement response
plot on both the base and roof nodes of the frame structure. It is observed that
the response is significantly different than the previous example (without
damping).

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0.33 m

roof

base

 
 

0.2 m

No SSI, no damping →

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